
Qass 



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TENT-LIFE IN SIBERIA 



ADVENTURES AMONG THE KORAKS 



AND OTHER TRIBES IN 



KAMTCHATKA AND NORTHERN ASIA 



BY 



GEORGE KENNAN 




NEW YORK 
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

27 & 2g WEST 23D STREET 
l88l 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1870 by 

G. P. PUTNAM'S & SONS 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington 



Press of 
G. P. Putnam s^Sons 

New York 



PREFACE 



The attempt which was made by the Western Union 
Telegraph Company, in 1865-6 and '7, to build an over- 
land line to Europe via Alaska, Behring's Straits, and 
Siberia, was in some respects the most remarkable un- 
dertaking of the present century. Bold in its conception, 
a^d important in the ends at which it aimed, it attracted 
I one time the attention of the whole civilized world, 
and was regarded as the greatest telegraphic enterprise 
which had ever engaged American capital. like all un- 
successful ventures, however, in this progressive age, it 
has been speedily forgotten, and the brilliant success of 
the Atlantic Cable has driven it entirely out of the public 
mind. Most readers are familiar with the principal facts 
in the history of this enterprise, from its organization to 
its ultimate abandonment ; but only a few, even of its 
original projectors, know anything about the work which 
it accomplished in British Columbia, Alaska, and Siberia ; 
the obstacles which were met and overcome by its explor- 
ing and working parties ; and the contributions which it 
made to our knowledge of an hitherto untravelled, un- 
visited region. Its employes, in the course of two years, 
explored nearly six thousand miles of unbroken wilderness, 



IV PREFACE. 

extending from Vancouver's Island on the American coast 
to Behring's Straits, and from Behring's Straits to the 
Chinese frontier in Asia. The traces of their deserted 
camps may be found in the wildest mountain fastnesses 
of Kamtchatka, on the vast desolate plains of Northeast- 
ern Siberia, and throughout the gloomy pine forests of 
Alaska and British Columbia. Mounted on reindeer, they 
traversed the most rugged passes of the north Asiatic 
mountains ; they floated in skin canoes down the great 
rivers of the north ; slept in the smoky pologs of the Sibe- 
rian Chookchees ; and camped out upon desolate northern 
plains in temperatures of 50 and 6o° below zero. The 
poles which they erected and the houses which they built 
now stand alone in an encircling wilderness, — the only re- 
sults of their three years' labor and suffering, and the only 
monuments of an abandoned enterprise. 

It is not my purpose to write a history of the Russo- 
American Telegraph. The success of its rival, the At- 
lantic Cable, has completely overshadowed its early impor- 
tance, and its own failure has deprived it of all its interest 
for American readers. Though its history, however, be 
unimportant, the surveys and explorations which were 
planned and executed under its auspices have a value and 
an interest of their own, aside from the object for which 
they were undertaken. The territory which they covered 
is little known to the reading world, and its nomadic in- 
habitants have been rarely visited by civilized man. Only 
a few adventurous traders and fur-hunters have ever pene- 
trated its almost unbroken solitudes, and it is not probable 
that civilized men will ever follow in their steps. The 



PREFACE. * 

country holds out to the ordinary traveller no inducement 
commensurate with the risk and hardship which its ex- 
ploration involves. 

Two of the employes of the Russo-American Tele- 
graph Company, Messrs. Whymper and Dall, have al- 
ready published accounts of their travels in various parts 
of British Columbia and Alaska ; and believing that a his- 
tory of the Company's explorations on the other side of 
Behring's Straits will possess equal interest, I have writ- 
ten the following narrative of two years' life in North- 
eastern Siberia. It makes no pretensions whatever to 
fulness of scientific information, nor to any very extraor- 
dinary researches of any kind. It is intended simply to 
convey as clear and accurate an idea as possible of the 
inhabitants, scenery, customs, and general external fea- 
tures of a new and comparatively unknown country. It 
is essentially a personal narrative of life in Siberia and 
Kamtchatka ; and its claim to attention lies rather in the 
freshness of the subject, than in any special devotion to 
science or skill of treatment 



CONTENTS 



CKA2TER JAG9 

I. The Russo- American Telegraph — The "Olga"' sails 

from San Francisco for Kamtchatka and the Amoor. s 

II. The Voyage across the North Pacific 10 

IIL Voyage continued — Petropavlovski 22 

IV. Petropavlovski 30 

V. Russian Language — Departure of the Amoor River 

Party 40 

VI. A Kamtchatkan Wedding— Start for the " Far North " 48 

VII. Horseback Ride in Kamtchatka — The Mountains — Vege- 
tation — Animal Life — The Villages— The People.. 56 

VIII. " Jerusalem " — The Dwellings — A Kamtchatka Supper 

— Indian Summer — A " Jehu " Prayer — Hard Riding 67 

IX. Malqua — Fine Scenery — Genul — A Bear Hunt — 

Pooschin 78 

X. Sherom — Boating — Milkova — Exciting Reception in 

the Character of " Emperor " 86 

XI. The River, continued — Volcano Kloochay — A "Black 

Bath" 97 

XII. Canoe Travel on the " Yolofka" — Volcanic Conversa- 
tion — " Oh, Susanna ! " — Talking " American " — 
Ride to Yolofka under Difficulties loq 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER p AO 

XIII. A Chilly Lodging — Grand Scenery — Another Bear Hunt 

— Steeple-chase — Floating to Tigil 12* 

XIV. Coast of the Okhotsk Sea — Lesnoi — Whale-boat and 

the Land Party — "Devil's Pass" — Samanka Moun- 
tains — Snow-storm — Wild Scene 133 

XV. Gale continued — Famine imminent — Boating Party 

heard from — Return to Lesnoi 146 

XVI. Kamtchadal Nights' Entertainments— The People— The 

Fish — Sables — Language — Music — Songs — 
Dog-sledges — Costume 154 

XVII. Russian Doctoring — The Samanka Mountains — En- 

campment of Wandering Koraks — Dogs and Rein- 
deer — Personals — Burrowing — ' ' Pologs ' ' — Korak 
Delicacies 166 

XVIII. Other Traits of Wandering Koraks — Independence — 
Hospitality — Lodging — Breakfast — Reindeer Travel 
■ — Korak Notions of Distance — Mysterious Visitor. 181 

XIX. Cheerless Travelling — Korak Marriage Ceremonies — 
Won't you take a Toadstool ? — Monotonous Exis- 
tence 195 

XX. Korak Language — Religion — Customs, etc 206 

XXI. River Penzhina — " 25 below zero " — Kamenoi — Korak 
" Yourt " — Journey to Geezhega — " Pavoskas " 
Meekina— The " Settled Koraks" 221 

XXII. Dog-driving — Reindeer Episode — Geezhega — The Gov- 
ernor and his Hospitality — Telegraphic Plans— The 
Author's Party sent to Anadyrsk 235 

XXIII. Arctic Rambling in Winter — Malmofka— Night Scenes 

— Shestakova. 250 



CONTENTS. lX 

CHAPTER PAGII 

XXIV. Dismal Lodgings — News from Col. Bulkley— Search 
for Lost Party of Americans — Curious Tree — 
Siberian " Poorga " — Storm 261 

XXV. Penzhina — Telegraph Poles — Arctic Temperature — 
Studying Astronomy — Arrival at Anadyrsk — A 
Priest's Hospitality 273 

XXVI. Anadyrsk— The Northern Outpost of Russian Life- 
Russian Christmas — A Ball — A Feast — Siberian 
Politeness 285 

XXVII. Adventures in search of our Comrades 300 

XXVIII. Adventures continued — Discovery of the Party 308 

XXIX. Siberian Tribes and their Peculiarities — Ideas of Read- 
ing and the Arts 320 

XXX An Arctic Aurora — Further Explorations — Arrival of 

our Comrades — Journey to the Okhotsk Sea 33 * 

XXXI. Social Life at Geezhega — Major Abasa's Expedi- 
tion — Sudden Transformation from Winter to 

Summer — Customs of the People, etc. 343 

XXXII. Weary Waiting — Mosquitoes — Arrival of a Russian 

Frigate 362 

XXXIII. Arrival of Supply-Ships — Last Journey to the Arctic 

Circle — Korak Drivers — Famine at Anadyrsk. . . . 374 

XXXIV. Bush Redivivus — Serious Dilemma — Starvation 

threatened — Eight Hundred Laborers hired — En- 
terprising American — A Wilderness 39c 

XXXV. Journey to Gamsk— Valley of the Viliga— A Storm— 

A perilous Pass 406 

XXXVI. Return to Geezhega — Arrival of the Onward— Or- 
ders to " Close up" — Beaten by the Atlantic Cable 
— Summary — Start for St. Petersburg — A Trip of 
more than 5,000 miles. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



CHAPTER I. 



The Russo-American Telegraph Company, or, as it was 
more properly called, the "Western Union Extension," 
was organized at New York in the summer of 1864. The 
idea of a line from America to Europe, by way of Behring's 
Straits, had existed for many years in the minds of several 
prominent telegraphers, and had been proposed by Perry 
McD. Collins, Esq., as early as 1857, when he made his 
trip across Northern Asia. It was never seriously con- 
sidered, however, until after the failure of the first Atlan- 
tic cable, when the expediency of an overland line between 
the two continents began to be earnestly discussed. The 
plan of Mr. Collins, which was submitted to the Western 
Union Telegraph Company of New York as early as 1863, 
seemed to be the most practicable of all the projects 
which were suggested for inter-continental communication. 
It proposed to unite the telegraphic systems of America 
and Russia by a line through British Columbia, Russian 
America, and North-eastern Siberia, meeting the Russian 
lines at the mouth of the Amoor River on the Asiatic 
coast, and forming one continuous girdle of wire nearly 
round the globe. 



2 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

This plan possessed many very obvious advantages. It 
called for no long cables. It provided for a line which 
would run everywhere overland, except for a shcrt dis- 
tance at Behring's Straits, and which could be easily re- 
paired when injured by accident or storm. It promised 
also to extend its line eventually down the Asiatic coast 
to Pekin, and to develop a large and profitable business 
with China. All these considerations recommended it 
strongly to the favor of capitalists and practical telegraph 
men, and it was finally adopted by the Western Union 
Telegraph Co. in 1863. It was, of course, foreseen that 
the next Atlantic cable might succeed, and that such suc- 
cess would prove very damaging, if not fatal, to the prospects 
of the proposed overland line. Such an event, however, 
did not seem probable, and in view of ail the circumstances, 
the company decided to assume the inevitable risk. 

A contract was entered into with the Russian Govern- 
ment, providing for the extension of the latter' s line through 
Siberia to the mouth of the Amoor River, and granting to 
the Company certain extraordinary privileges in Russian 
territory. Similar concessions were obtained in 1864 from 
the British Government ; assistance was promised by oui 
own Congress ; and the "Western Union Extension Com- 
pany " was immediately organized, with a nominal capital 
of $10,000,000. The stock was rapidly taken, principally 
by the stockholders of the original Western Union Com- 
pany, and an assessment of five per cent, was immediate- 
ly made to provide funds for the prosecution of the work. 
Such was the faith at this time in the ultimate success of 
the enterprise, that its stock sold in two months for seven 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 3 

ty-five dollars per share, with only one assessment of five 
dollars paid in. 

In August, 1864, Col. Chas. S. Bulkley, formerly Super- 
intendent of Military Telegraphs in the Department of the 
Gulf, was appointed Engineer-in-chief of the proposed 
line, and in December he sailed from New York for San 
Francisco, to organize and fit out exploring parties, and 
begin active operations. 

Led by a desire of identifying myself with so novel and 
important an enterprise, as well as by a natural love of 
travel and adventure which I had never before been able 
to gratify, I offered my services as an explorer soon aftei 
the projection of the line. My application was favorably 
considered, and on the 13th of December I sailed from 
New York with the Engineer-in-chief, for the proposed 
headquarters of the company at San Francisco. Col. 
Bulkley, immediately after his arrival, opened an office in 
Montgomery street, and began organizing exploring par- 
ties to make a preliminary survey of the route of the line. 
No sooner did it become noised about the city that men 
were wanted to explore the unknown regions of British 
Columbia, Russian America, and Siberia, than the com- 
pany's office was thronged with eager applicants for posi- 
tions, in any and every capacity. 

Adventurous Micawliers, who had long been waiting for 
something of this kind to turn up ; broken down miners, 
who hoped to retrieve their fortunes in new gold fields yet 
to be discovered in the north ; and returned soldiers thirst- 
ing for fresh excitement, — all hastened to offer their services 
as pioneers in the great work. Trained and skilled engi- 



4 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

neers were in active demand ; but the supply of only ordi- 
nary men, w'.io made up in enthusiasm what they lacked 
in experience, was unlimited. 

Month after month passed slowly away in the selection, 
organization, and equipment of parties, until at last, in June, 
1865, the company's vessels were reported ready for sea. 

The plan of operations, as far as it had then been decided 
upon, was to land one party in British Columbia, near the 
mouth of the Frazer River ; one in Russian America, at 
Norton's Sound; and one on the Asiatic side of Behring's 
Straits, at the mouth of the Anadyr River. These parties, 
under the direction respectively of Messrs. Pope, Kenni- 
cott, and Macrae, were directed to push back into the in- 
terior, following as far as practicable the courses of the 
rivers upon which they were landed; to obtain all possible 
information with regard to the climate, soil, timber, and 
inhabitants of the regions traversed ; and to locate, in a 
general way, a route for the proposed line. 

The two American parties would have comparatively 
advantageous bases of operations at Victoria and Fort St. 
Michael ; but the Siberian party, if left on the Asiatic coast 
at all, must be landed near Behring's Straits, on the edge 
of a barren, desolate region, nearly a thousand miles from 
any known settlement. Thrown thus upon its own re- 
sources, in an unknown country, and among nomadic tribes 
of hostile natives, without any means of interior transpor- 
tation except canoes, the safety and success of this party 
were by no means assured. It was even asserted by 
many friends of the enterprise, that to leave men in such 
a situation, and under such circumstances, was to abandon 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 5 

them to almost certain death ; and the Russian Consul at 
San Francisco wrote a letter to Colonel Bulkley, advising 
him strongly not to land a party on the Asiatic coast oi 
the North Pacific, but to send it instead to one of the 
Russian ports of the Okhotsk Sea, where it could establish 
a base of supplies, obtain information with regard to the 
interior, and procure horses or dog-sledges for overland 
explorations in any desired direction. 

The wisdom and good sense of this advice were appa- 
rent to all ; but unfortunately the Engineer-in-chief had 
no vessel which he could send with a party into the 
Okhotsk Sea ; and if men were landed at all that summer 
on the Asiatic coast, they must be landed near Behring's 
Straits. 

Late in June, however, Col. Bulkley learned that a small 
Russian trading vessel, called the " Olga," was about to 
sail from San Francisco for Kamtchatka and the south- 
west coast of the Okhotsk Sea, and he succeeded in pre- 
vailing upon the owners to take four men as passengers to 
the Russian settlement of Nikolas vsk, at the mouth of the 
Amoor River. This, although not as desirable a point for 
beginning operations as some others on the north coast of 
the sea, was still much better than any which could be se- 
lected on the Asiatic coast of the North Pacific ; and a 
party was soon organized to sail in the " Olga" for Kam- 
tchatka and the mouth of the Amoor. This party consist- 
ed of Major S. Abaza, a Russian gentleman who had been 
appointed superintendent of the work, and Generalissimo 
of the forces in Siberia ; James A. Mahood, a civil engineer 
of reputation in California ; R. J. Bush, who had just re« 



6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

turned from three years' active service in the Carolinas ; 
and myself, — not a very formidable force in point of num- 
bers, nor a very remarkable one in point of experience, 
but strong in hope, self-reliance, and enthusiasm. 

On the 28th of June we were notified that " the brig 
Olga" had nearly all her cargo aboard, and would have 
" immediate dispatch" 

This marine metaphor, as we afterward learned, meant 
only that she would sail some time in the course of the 
summer ; but we, in our trustful inexperience, supposed 
that the brig must be all ready to cast off her moorings, 
and the announcement threw us into all the excitement 
and confusion of hasty preparation for a start. Dress coats, 
linen shirts, and fine boots were recklessly thrown or given 
away; blankets, heavy shoes, and over-shuts of flannel 
were purchased in large quantities ; Ballard & Sharpes' rifles, 
revolvers, and bowie-knives of formidable dimensions gave 
our room the appearance of a disorganized arsenal ; pots 
of arsenic, jars of alcohol, butterfly-nets, snake-bags, pill- 
boxes, and a dozen other implements and appliances of sci- 
ence about which we knew nothing, were given to us by 
our enthusiastic naturalists and packed away in big boxes ; 
Vrangell's Travels, Gray's Botany, and a few scientific 
works were added to our small library ; and before night 
we were able to report ourselves ready — armed and equip 
ped for any adventure, from the capture of a new species 
of bug, to the conquest of Kamtchatka ! 

As it was against all precedent to go to sea without 
looking at the ship, Bush and I appointed ourselves au 
examining committee for the party, and walked down to 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 7 

the wharf where she lay. The Captain, a bluff Americanized 
German, met us at the gangway and guided us through the 
little brig from stem to stern. Our limited marine experience 
wouldn't have qualified us to pass an ex cathedrd judgment 
upon the sea-worthiness of a mud scow; but Bush, with char- 
acteristic impudence and versatility of talent, discoursed 
learnedly to the Captain upon the beauty of his vessel's 
"lines" (whatever those were), her spread of canvas and 
build generally, — discussed the comparative merits of single 
and double topsails, and new patent yard-slings, and reef- 
ing-tackle, and altogether displayed such an amount of 
nautical learning that it completely crushed me and stag- 
gered even the Captain. 

f-I strongly suspected that Bush had acquired most of his 
knowledge of sea terms from a cursory perusal of " Bow- 
ditch's Navigator," which I had seen lying on the office 
table, and I privately resolved to procure a compact edi- 
tion of Marryat's sea tales as soon as I should go ashore, 
and just overwhelm him next time with such accumulated 
stores of nautical erudition that he would hide his dimin- 
ished head. I had a dim recollection of reading some- 
thing in Cooper's novels about a ship's dead heads and cat's 
eyes, or cat heads and dead eyes, I couldn't remember 
which, and, determined not to be ignored as an inexperi- 
enced landlubber, I gazed in a vague sort of way into 
the rigging, and made a few very general observations 
upcn the nature of dead-eyes and spanker-booms. The 
Captain, however, promptly annihilated me by demanding 
categorically whether I had ever seen the spanker-boom 
jammed with the fore tops' 1-yard, with the wind abeam. J 



8 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

replied meekly that I believed such a catastiophe had 
never occurred under my immediate observation, and as he 
turned to Bush with a smile of commiseration for my igno- 
rance I ground my teeth and went below to inspect I he 
pantry. Here I felt more at home. The long rows of 
canned provisions, beef stock, concentrated milk, pie fruits, 
and a small keg, bearing the quaint inscription, " Zante 
cur.," soon soothed my perturbed spirit and convinced me 
beyond the shadow of a doubt that the " Olga" was stanch 
and sea-worthy, and built in the latest and most improved 
style of marine architecture. 

I therefore went up to tell Bush that I had made a care- 
ful and critical examination of the vessel below, and that she 
would undoubtedly do. I omitted to state the nature of 
the observations upon which this conclusion was founded, 
but he asked no troublesome questions, and we returned to 
the office with a favorable report of the ship's build, capa- 
city, and outfit. 

On Saturday, July ist, the "Olga" took in the last of 
her cargo, and was hauled out into the stream. 

Our farewell letters were hastily written home, our final 
preparations made, and at nine o'clock on Monday morn- 
ing we assembled s t the Howard street wharf, where the 
steam-tug lay which was to tow us out to sea. 

A large party of friends had gathered to bid us good- 
by ; and the pier, covered with bright dresses and blue 
uniforms, presented quite a holiday appearance in the 
warm clear sunshine of a California morning 

Our last instructions were delivered to us by Colonel 
Bulkley, with many hearty wishes for our health and sue- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 9 

cess ; laughing invitations to " come and see us " were ex- 
tended to our less fortunate comrades who were left be- 
hind ; requests to send back specimens of the North Pole 
and the Aurora Borealis were intermingled with direction? 
for preserving birds and collecting bugs ; and amid a gen- 
eral confusion of congratulations, good wishes, cautions, 
bantering challenges, and tearful farewells, the steamer's 
bell rang. Dall, ever alive to the interests of his beloved 
science, grasped me cordially by the hand, saying, " Good- 
bv, George. God bless you ! Keep your eye out for 
land snails and skulls of the wild animals !" 

Miss B said pleadingly, "Take care of my dear 

brother ; " and as I promised to care for him as if he were 
my own, I thought of another sister far away, who, could 
she be present, would echo the request, " Take care of my 
dear brother." With waving handkerchiefs and repeated 
good-byes, we moved slowly from the wharf, and, steaming 
round in a great semicircle to where the "Olga" was ly- 
ing, we were transferred to the little brig, which, for the 
next two months, was to be our home. 

The steamer towed us outside the "heads" of the 
Golden Gate, and then cast off; and as she passed us on 
her way back, our friends gathered in a little group on the 
forward deck, with the Colonel at their head, and gave 
three generous cheers for the " First Siberian exploring 
party." We replied with three more, — our last farewell to 
civilization, — and silently watched the lessening figure of 
the steamer, until the white handkerchief which Arnold 
had tied to the backstays could no longer be seen, and 
we were rocking alone on the long swells of the Pacific. 



CHAPTER II. 

'* lie tcok great .ontent and exceeding delight in his voyage, as who doth 1108 
US shall attempt thi like." — Burton. 

At Sea, 700 Miles N. W. of San Francisco. 

Wednesday, Jtily 12th, 1 865. 

Ten days ago, on the eve of our departure for the Asiatic 
coast, full of high hopes and joyful anticipations of pleas- 
ure, I wrote in a fair round hand on this opening page of 
my journal, the above sentence from Burton ; never once 
doubting, in my enthusiasm, the complete realization of 
those "future joys," which to "fancy's eye" lay in such 
" bright uncertainty," or suspecting that " a life on the 
ocean wave " was not a state of the highest felicity at- 
tainable on earth. The quotation seemed to me an ex- 
tremely happy one, and I mentally blessed the quaint old 
Anatomist of Melancholy for providing me with a motto 
at once so simple and so appropriate. Of course "he 
took great content and exceeding delight in his voyage; " 
and the wholly unwarranted assumption that because "he" 
did. every one else necessarily must, did not strike me 
as being in the least absurd. 

On the contrary, it carried all the weight of the severest 
logical demonstration, and I would have treated with con- 
tempt any suggestion of possible disappointment. Mj 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. II 

| ideas of sea life had been derived principally from glow- 
ing descriptions of poetical marine sunsets, of " summei 
isles of Eden, lying in dark purple spheres of sea," and of 
those " moonlight nights on lonely waters " with which 
poets have for ages beguiled ignorant landsmen into 
ocean voyages. Fogs, storms, and sea-sickness did not 
enter at all into my conceptions of marine phenomena ; 
or if I did admit the possibility of a storm, it was only as 
a picturesque, highly poetical manifestation of wind and 
water in action, without any of the disagreeable features 
which attend those elements under more prosaic circum- 
stances. I had, it is true, experienced a little rough 
weather on my voyage to California, but my memory had 
long since idealized it into something grand and poetical ; 
and I looked forward even to a storm on the Pacific as 
an experience not only pleasant, but highly desirable. 
The illusion was very pleasant while it lasted; but— it is 
over. Ten days of real sea life have converted the 
"bright uncertainty of future joys " into a dark and de- 
cided certainty of future misery, and left me to mourn the 
incompatibility of poetry and truth. Burton is a hum- 
bug, Tennyson a fraud, I'm a victim, and Byron and 
Procter are accessaries before the fact. Never again 
will I pin my faith to poets. They may tell the truth 
nearly enough for poetical consistency, but their judg- 
ment is hopelessly perverted and their imagination is too 
luxuriantly vivid for a truthful realistic delineation of sea 
life. Byron's " London Packet" is a trilliant exception, 
but I remember no other in the whole range of poetical 
literature. 



12 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Our life since we left port has certainly been anything 
but poetical. 

For nearly a week we suffered all the indescribable 
miseries of sea-sickness, without any alleviating circum- 
stances whatever. Day after day we lay in our narrow 
berths, too sick to read, too unhappy to talk, watching 
the cabin lamp as it swung uneasily in its well-oiled gim- 
bals, and listening to the gurgle and swash of the water 
around the after dead-lights, and the regular clank, clank 
of the blocks of the trisail sheet as the rolling of the vessel 
swung the heavy boom from side to side. 

We all professed to be enthusiastic supporters of the 
Tapleyan philosophy — jollity under all circumstances; 
but we failed most lamentably in reconciling our practice 
with our principles. There was not the faintest suggestion 
of jollity in the appearance of the four motionless, pros- 
trate figures against the wall. Sea-sickness had triumphed 
over philosophy ! Prospective and retrospective revery 
of a decidedly gloomy character was our only occupation. 
I remember speculating curiously upon the probability of 
Noah's having ever been sea-sick ; wondering how the sea- 
going qualities of the ark would compare with those of 
our brig, and whether she had our brig's uncomfortable 
way of pitching about in a heavy swell. 

If she had — and I almost smiled at the idea — what an 
unhappy experience it must have been for the pooi 
animals ! 

I wondered also if Jason and Ulysses were born with 
" sea legs," or whether they had to go through the same 
unpleasant process that we did to get them on. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. I J 

Concluded finally that " sea legs," like some diseases 
must be a diabolical invention of modern times, and that 
the ancients got along in some way without them. Then, 
looking intently at the fly-specks upon the painted boaids 
ten inches from my eyes, I would recall all the bright an- 
ticipations with which I had sailed from San Francisco, 
and turn over, with a groan of disgust, to the wall. 

I wonder if any one has ever written down on paper 
/ his sea-sick reveries. There are " Evening Reveries " 
" Reveries of a Bachelor," and " Sea-side Reveries " in 
abundance ; but no one, so far as I know, has ever even 
attempted to do his Sea-sick Reveries literary justice. It 
is a strange oversight, and I would respectfully suggest to 
any aspiring writer who has the revery faculty, that there 
is here an unworked field of boundless extent. One trip 
across the North Pacific in a small brig will furnish an in- 
exhaustible supply of material. 

Our life thus far has been too monotonous to afford a 
single noticeable incident. The weather has been cold, 
damp, and foggy, with light head winds and a heavy swell ; 
we have been confined closely to our seven by nine after- 
cabin ; and its close stifling atmosphere, redolent of bilge- 
water, lamp-oil, and tobacco-smoke, has had a most de- 
pressing influence upon our spirits. I am glad to see, 
however, that all our party are up to-day, and that there is 
a faint interest manifested in the prospect of dinner ; but 
even the inspiriting strains of the Faust march which the 
Captain is playing upon a wheezy old accordion, fail to 
put any expression of animation into the woe-begone faces 
around the cabin table. Mahood pretends that he is all 



T4 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

right, and plays checkers with the captain with an air of 
assumed tranquillity which approaches heroism, but he is 
observed at irregular intervals to go suddenly and unex- 
pectedly on deck, and to return every time with a more 
ghastly and rueful countenance. When asked the object 
of these periodical visits to the quarter-deck, he replies, 
with a transparent affectation of cheerfulness, that he only 
goes up " to look at the compass and see how she's head- 
ing." I am surprised to find that " looking at the com- 
pass" is attended with such painful and melancholy emo- 
tions as those expressed inMahood's face when he comes 
back ; but he performs the self-imposed duty with unshrink- 
ing faithfulness, and relieves us of a great deal of a.nxiety 
about the safety of the ship. The Captain seems a little neg- 
ligent, and sometimes does not observe the compass once 
a day ; but Mahood watches it with unsleeping vigilance. 

Brig Olga, 800 Miles N. W. of San Francisco. 

Sunday, yuly 16th, 1865. 

.The monotony of our lives was relieved night before 
last, and our sea-sickness aggravated, by a severe gale of 
wind from the north-west, which compelled us to lie to 
for twenty hours under one close-reefed maintopsail. 
The storm began late in the afternoon, and by nine o'clock 
the wind was at its height and the sea rapidly rising. The 
waves pounded like Titanic sledge-hammers against the 
vessel's quivering timbers; the gale roared a deep diapa- 
son through the cordage ; and the regular thud, thud, 
thud of the pumps, and the long melancholy whis- 
tling of the wind through the blocks, filled our minds 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 5 

with lismal forebodings, and banished all inclination fol 
sleep . 

M< >rning dawned gloomily and reluctantly, and its fust 
gray light, struggling through the film of water on the small 
rectangular deck-lights, revealed a comical scene of con- 
fusion and disorder. The ship was rolling and laboring 
heavily, and Mahood's trunk having in some way broken 
from its moorings, was sliding back and forth across the 
cabin floor. Bush's big meerschaum, in company with a 
corpulent sponge, had taker up temporary quarters in the 
tov.yi of niy best hat, and the Major's box of cigars revol- 
ved periodically from corner to corner in the close em- 
brace of a dirty shirt. Sliding and rolling over the car- 
pet in every direction were books, papers, cigars, brushes, 
dirty collars, stockings, empty wine-bottles, slippers, coats, 
and old boots ; and a large box of telegraph material 
threatened momentarily to break from its fastenings and 
demolish everything. The Major, who was the first to 
show any signs of animation, rose on one elbow in bed, 
gazed fixedly at the sliding and revolving articles, and 
shaking his head reflectively, said : " It is a c-u-r-ious thing ! 
It is a c-u r-ious thing ! " as if the migratory boots and 
cigar-boxes exhibited some new and perplexing pheno- 
mena not to be accounted for by any of the known laws of 
physics. A sudden roll in which the vessel indulged at 
that particular moment gave additional force to the sen- 
timent of the soliloquy ; and with renewed convictions, I 
have no doubt, of the original and innate depravity of mat- 
ter generally, and of the Pacific Ocean especially, he laid 
his head back upon the pillow. 



l6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

It required no inconsiderable degree of resolution to 
i turn out " under such unpromising circumstances ; bul 
Bush, after two or three groans and a yawn, made the at- 
tempt to get up and dress. Climbing hurriedly down 
when the ship rolled to windward, he caught his boots in 
one hand and pants in the other, and began hopping about 
the cabin with surprising agility, dodging or jumping over 
the sliding trunk and rolling bottles, and making frantic 
efforts to put both legs simultaneously into one boot. Sur- 
prised in the midst of this arduous task by an unexpected 
lurch, he made an impetuous charge upon an 17 inoffensive 
washstand, stepped on an erratic bottle, fell on his head, and 
finally brought up a total wreck in the corner of the room. 
Convulsed with laughter, the Major could only ejaculate 
disconnectedly, " I tell you — it is a — curious thing how 
she — rolls!" "Yes," rejoined Bush savagely, as he rub- 
bed one knee, " I should think it was ! Just get up and 
try it !" But the Major was entirely satisfied to see Bush 
try it, and did nothing but laugh at his misfortunes. The 
latter finally succeeded in getting dressed, and after some 
hesitation I concluded to follow his example. By dint 
of falling twice over the trunk, kneeling upon my heels, 
sitting on my elbows, and executing several other 
equally impracticable feats, I got my vest on inside out, 
both feet in the wrong boots respectively, and staggered 
up the companion-way on deck. The wind was still blow- 
ing a gale, and we showed no canvas but one close-reefed 
maintopsail. Great massive mounds of blue water piled 
themselves up in the concealment of the low hanging rain- 
clouds, rushed out upon us with white foaming crests ten 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 7 

feet above the quarter-deck, and broke into clouds of 
blinding, strangling spray over the forecastle and galley, 
careening the ship until die bell on the quarter-deck struck 
and water run in over the lee gunwale. It did not exact- 
ly correspond with my preconceived ideas of a storm, but 
I was obliged to confess that it had many of the charac- 
teristic features of the real phenomenon. The wind had 
the orthodox howl through the rigging, the sea was fully up 
to the prescribed standard, and the vessel pitched and rolled 
in a way to satisfy the most critical taste. The impression 
of sublimity, however, which I had anticipated was almost 
entirely lost in the sense of personal discomfort. A man 
who has just been pitched over a skylight by one of the 
ship's eccentric movements, or drenched to the skin by a 
burst of spray, is not in a state of mind to contemplate 
sublimity ; and after going through a varied and exhaus- 
tive course of such treatment, any romantic notions which 
he may previously have entertained with regard to the 
ocean's beauty and sublimity are pretty much knocked 
and drowned out of him. Rough weather makes short 
work of poetry and sentiment. The " wet sheet " and 
" flowing sea" of the poet have a significance quite the 
reverse of poetical when one discovers the "wet sheet" 
in his bed and the " flowing sea " all over the cabin floor, 
and om experience illustrates not so much the sublimity 
as the unpleasantness and discomfort of a storm at sea. 

Brig Olga, at Sea, July 27th, 1865. 
I used often to wonder, while living in San Francisco, 
where the chilling fogs that toward night used to drift in 



l8 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

over I ,one Mountain and through the Golden Gate, came 
from. I have discovered the laboratory. For the past 
two weeks we have been sailing continually in a dense 
wet gray cloud of mist, so thick at times as almost to hide 
the top-gallant yards, and so penetrating as to find its 
way even into our little after-cabin, and condense in mi- 
nute drops upon our clothes. It rises, I presume, from the 
warm water of the great Pacific "Gulf Stream" across 
which we are passing, and whose vapor is condensed into 
fog by the cold north-west winds from Siberia. It is the 
most disagreeable feature of our voyage. 

Our life has finally settled down into a quiet mono- 
tonous routine of eating, smoking, watching the baro- 
meter, and sleeping twelve hours a day. The gale with 
which we were favored two weeks ago afforded a pleas- 
ant thrill of temporary excitement and a valuable topic of 
conversation ; but we have all come to coincide in the 
opinion of the Major, that it was a " curious thing," and 
are anxiously awaiting the turning up of something else. 
One cold, rainy, foggy day succeeds another, with only an 
occasional variation in the way of a head wind or a flurry 
of snow. Time, of course, hangs heavily on our hands. 
We are waked about half-past seven in the morning by 
the second mate, a funny phlegmatic Dutchman, who is 
always shouting to us to " turn out " and see an imagi- 
nary whale, which he conjures up regularly before break- 
fast, and which invariably disappears before we can get 
on deck, as mysteriously as " Moby Dick." The whale, 
however, fails to " draw " after a time, and he resorts to 
<in equally mysterious and eccentric sea serpent, whose 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. I«) 

wonderful appearance he describes in comical broken 
English, with the vain hope that we will crawl out into 
the raw foggy atmosphere to look at it. We never do 
Bush opens his eyes, yawns, and keeps a sleepy watch c. 
the breakfast table, which is situated in the Captain's 
cabin forward. I cannot see it from my berth, so I watch 
Bush. Presently we hear the hump-backed steward's foot- 
steps on the deck above our heads, and, with a quick 
succession of little bumps, half a dozen boiled 'potatoes 
come rolling down the stairs of the companion-way into 
the cabin. They are the forerunners of breakfast. Bush 
watches the table, and I watch Bush more and more in- 
tently as the steward brings in the eatables ; and by the 
expression of Bush's face, I judge whether it be worth 
while to get up or not. If he groans and turns over to 
the wall, I know that it is only hash, and I echo his groan 
and follow his example ; but if he smiles and gets up, I 
do likewise, with the full assurance of fresh mutton-chops 
or rice-curry and chicken. After breakfast the Major 
smokes a cigarette and looks meditatively at the baro- 
meter, the Captain gets his old accordion and squeezes 
out the Russian National Hymn, while Bush and I go on 
deck to inhale a few breaths of pure fresh fog, and 
"chaff" the second mate about his sea serpent. In 
reading, playing checkers, fencing, and climbing about 
the rigging when the weather permits, we pass away the 
day, as we have already passed away twenty and must 
pass twenty more before we can hope to see land. 



20 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

At Sea, near the Aleutian Island^ 
August 6th, 1865. 

" Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an 
acre of barren ground, ling, heath, broom, furze, any- 
thing," except this wearisome monotonous waste of water ! 
Let Kamtchatka be what it will, we shall welcome it with 
as much joy as that with which Columbus first saw the 
flowery coast of San Salvador. I am prepared to look 
with complacency upon a sand bar and two spears of 
grass, and would not even insist upon the grass if I could 
only be sure of the sand bar. We have now been thirty- 
four days at sea without once meeting a sail or getting a 
glimpse of land. 

Our chief amusement lately has been the discussion of 
controverted points of history and science, and wonderful 
is the forensic and argumentative ability which these de- 
bates have developed. They are getting to be positively 
interesting. The only drawback to them is, that in the 
absence of any decisive authority they never come to any 
satisfactory conclusion. We have now been discussing 
for sixteen days the uses of a whale's " blow holes ;" and I 
firmly believe that if our voyage were prolonged, like the 
" Flying Dutchman's," to all eternity, we should never 
reach any solution of the problem which would satisfy all 
the disputants. The Captain has an old Dutch History 
of the World, in twenty-six folio volumes, to which he ap- 
peals as final authority in all questions under the heavens, 
whether pertaining to Love, Science, War, Art, Politics, 
or Religion; and no sooner does he get cornered in a 
discussion than he entrenches himself behind these pon- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA 21 

derous folios, and keeps up a hot fire of terrific Dutch 
polysyllables until we are ready to make an unconditional 
surrender. If we venture to suggest a doubt as to the in- 
timacy of the connection between a whale's " blow holes " 
and the History of the World, he comes down upon us 
with the most withering denunciations as wrong-headed 
sceptics who won't even believe what is printed — and in a 
Dutch History too ! As the Captain dispenses the pie, 
however, at dinner, I have found it advisable to smother 
my convictions as to the veracity of his Teutonic histo- 
rian, and join him in denouncing that pernicious heretic 
Bush, who is wise beyond what is written. Result — Bush 
gets only one small piece of pie, and I get two, which of 
course is highly gratifying to my feelings, as well as ad- 
vantageous to the dispersion of sound historical learn- 
ing ! 

I begin to observe at dinner an increasing reverence 
on Bush's part for Dutch Histories. 



CHAPTER III. 

Brig C lga, at Sea, 200 Miles from Kamtcha tka. 

August ijt/i, 1869. 
Our voyage is at last drawing to a close, and after seven 
long weeks of cold, rainy, rough weather our eyes are soon 
to be gladdened again by the sight of land, and never was 
it more welcome to weary mariner than it will be to us. 
Even as I write, the sound of scraping and scrubbing is 
heard on deck, and proclaims our nearness to land. They 
are dressing the vessel to go once more into society. We 
were only 255 miles from the Kamtchatkan seaport of 
Petropavlovski last night, and if this favorable breeze 
holds we expect to reach there to-morrow noon. It has 
fallen almost to a dead calm, however, this morning, so 
that we may be delayed until Saturday. 

At Sea, off the Coast of Kamtchatka, 
Friday, August i$t/i, 1865. 
We have a fine breeze this morning ; and the brig, under 
every stitch of -canvas that will draw, is staggering through 
the seas enveloped in a dense fog, through which even her 
top-gallant sails show mistily. Should the wind continue 
and the fog be dissipated we may hope to see land to 
night. 

II A.M. 

I have just come down from the top-gallant yard, where 
for the last three hours I have been clinging uncomforta- 



TENT LTFE IN SIBERIA. 23 

bly to the backstays, watching for land, and swinging 
back and forth through the fog in the arc of a great circle 
as the vessel rolled lazily to the seas. We cannot dis- 
cern any object at a distance of three ships' lengths, al- 
though the sky is evidently cloudless. Great numbers of 
gulls, boobies, puffin, fish-hawks, and solan-geese surround 
the ship, and the water is full of drifting medusae. 

Noon. 
Half an hour ago the fog began to lift, and at 11.40 the 
Captain, who had been sweeping the horizon with a glass, 
shouted cheerily, " Land ho ! Land ho ! Hurrah ! " and 
the cry was echoed simultaneously from stem to stern, 
and from the galley to the top-gallant yard. Bush, Ma- 
hood, and the Major started at a run for the forecastle ; 
the little hump-backed steward rushed frantically out of 
the galley with his hands all dough, and climbed up on the 
bulwarks ; the sailors ran into the rigging, and only the 
man at the wheel retained his self-possession. Away 
ahead, drawn in faint luminous outlines above the horizon, 
appeared two high conical peaks, so distant that nothing 
but the white snow in their deep ravines could be seen, 
and so faint that they could hardly be distinguished from 
the blue sky beyond. They were the mountains of Vil- 
leuchinski and Avatcha, on the Kamtchatkan coast, fully 
a hundred miles away. The Major looked at them 
through a glass long and eagerly, and then waving his 
hand proudly toward them, turned to us, and said with a 
burst of national enthusiasm, "You see before you my 
country — the great Russian Empire ! " and then as the 



24 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

fog drifted down again upon the ship, he dropped sudden* 
\y from his declamatory style, and with a look of disgust 
exclaimed, " Chort zuiet shto etta takoi — it is a. curious 
tiding ! fog, fog, nothing but fog ! " 

In five minutes the last vestige of " the great Russian 
F.mpire " had disappeared, and we went below to dinner 
in a state of joyful excitement, which can never be im- 
agined by one who has not been forty-six days at sea in 
the North Pacific. 

4 P.M. 

We have just been favored with another view of the 
land. Half an hour ago I could see from the top-gallant 
yard, where I was posted, that the fog was beginning to 
break away, and in a moment it rose slowly like a huge 
gray curtain, unveiling the sea and the deep blue sky, 
letting in a flood of rosy light from the sinking sun, 
and revealing a picture of wonderful beauty. Before us. 
stretching for a hundred and fifty miles to the north and 
south, lay the grand coast-line of Kamtchatka, rising ab- 
ruplly in great purple promontories out of the blue spar- 
kling sea, flecked here with white clouds and shreds of 
fleecy mist, deepening in places into a soft quivering blue, 
and sweeping backward and upward into the pure white 
snow of the higher peaks. Two active volcanoes, 10,000 
and 16,000 feet in height, rose above the confused jagged 
ranges of the lower mountains, piercing the blue sky with 
sharp white triangles of eternal snow, and drawing the 
purple shadows of evening around their feet. The high 
bold coast did not appear, in that clear atmosphere, to be 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 25 

fifteen miles away, and it seemed to have risen suddenly 
like a beautiful mirage out of the sea. In less than five 
minutes the gray curtain of mist dropped slowly down 
again over the magnificent picture, and it faded gradually 
from sight, leaving us almost in doubt whether it had 
been a reality, or only a bright deceptive vision. We are 
enveloped now, as we have been nearly all day, in a thick 
clammy fog. 

Habor of Petropavlovski, Kamtchatka. 

Augitst iC)th, 1865. 

At dark last night we were distant, as we supposed, 
about fifteen miles from Cap** Pavorotni, and as the fog 
had closed in again denser tnan ever, the Captain dared 
not venture any nearer. The ship was accordingly put 
about, and we stood off and on all night, waiting for sun- 
rise and a clear atmosphere, to enable us to approach the 
coast in safety. At five o'clock I was on deck. The fog 
was colder and denser than ever, and out of it rolled the 
white-capped waves raised by a fresh south-easterly breeze. 
Shortly before six o'clock it began to grow light, the brig 
was headed for the land, and under foresail, jib, and top- 
sails, began to forge steadily through the water. The Cap- 
tain, glass in hand, anxiously paced the quarter-deck, ever 
and anon reconnoitering the horizon, and casting a glance 
up to windward to see if there were any prospect of bet- 
ter weather. Several times he was upon the point of 
putting the ship about, fearing to run on a lee shore in 
that impenetrable mist ; but it finally lightened up, the 
fog disappeared, and the horizon line came out clear and 



26 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

distinct. To our utter astonishment, not a foot of land 
could be seen in any direction ! The long range of blue 
mountains which had seemed the previous night to 1 >e 
within an hour's sail — the lofty snowy peaks — the deep 
gorges and the bold headlands, had all 

" melted into thin air, 

Leaving not a rack behind." 

There was nothing to indicate the existence of land 
within a thousand miles, save the number and variety of 
the birds that wheeled curiously around our wake, and 
flew away with a splattering noise from under our bows 
Many were the theories which were suggested to account 
for the sudden disappearance of the high bold land. The 
Captain attempted to explain it by the supposition that a 
strong current, sweeping off shore, had during the night 
carried us away to the south-east. Bush accused the mate 
of being asleep on his watch, and letting the ship run over 
the land, while the mate declared solemnly that he didn't 
believe that there had been any land there at all ; that it 
was only a mirage. The Major said it was " paganni," 
and " a curious thing," but did not volunteer any solution 
of the problem. So there we were. 

We had a fine leading wind from the S. E., and were. 
now going through the water at the rate of seven knots. 
Eight o'clock, nine o'clock, ten o'clock, and still no ap- 
pearance of land, although we had made since daylight 
more than thirty miles. At eleven o'clock, however, the 
horizon gradually darkened, and all at once a bold head- 
land, terminating in a precipitous cliff, loomed up out of 
& thin mist at a distance of only four miles. All was at 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 2") 

once excitement. The top-gallant sails were clewed up 
to reduce the vessel's speed, and her course was changed 
so that we swept round in a curve broadside to the coast, 
about three miles distant. The mountain peaks, by which 
we might have ascertained our position, were hidden by 
the clouds and fog, and it was no easy matter to ascertain 
exactly where we were. 

Away to the left, dimly defined in the mist, were two or 
three more high blue headlands, but what they were or 
where the harbor of Petropavlovski might be, were ques- 
tions which no one could answer. The Captain brought 
his charts, compass, and drawing instruments on deck, 
laid them on the cabin skylight, and began taking the 
bearings of the different headlands, while we eagerly 
scanned the shore with glasses, and gave free expressions 
to our several opinions as to our situation. The Russian 
chart which the Captain had of the coast, was fortunately 
a good one, and he soon determined our position, and the 
names of the headlands first seen. We were just north 
of Cape Pavorotni, about nine miles south of the entrance 
of Avatcha Bay. The yards were now squared, and we 
went off on the new tack before a steady breeze from the 
south-east. In less than an hour we sighted the high iso- 
lated rocks known as the "Three Brothers," passed a 
rocky precipitous island, surrounded by clouds of shrieking 
gulls and parrot-billed ducks, and by two o'clock were 
off "the heads" of Avatcha Bay, on which is situated the 
village of Petropavlovski. The scenery at the entrance 
more than equalled our highest anticipations. Green 
grassy valleys stretched away from openings in the rocky 



28 TENT LIFE IN SIBERH. 

coast until they were lost in the distant mountains ; the 
rounded bluffs were covered with clumps of yellow birch ; 
and thickets of dark green chaparral, patches of flowers, 
oould be seen on the warm sheltered slopes of the hills ; 
and as we passed close under lighthouse bluff, Bush shout- 
ed joyously, " Hurrah, there's clover ! " " Clover ! " cxk 
claimed the Captain contemptuously, "There ain't any 
clover in the Ar'tic regions!" "How do you know, 
you've never been there," retorted Bush caustically ; " it 
looks like clover, and" — looking through a glass — "it is 
clover;" and his face lighted up as if the discovery of 
clover had relieved his mind of a great deal of anxiety as 
to the severity of the Kamtchatkan climate. It was a sort 
of vegetable exponent of temperature, and out of a little 
patch of clover, Bush's imagination " developed," in a 
style undreamt of by Darwin, the whole luxuriant Flora 
of the temperate zone. 

The very name of Kamtchatka had always been asso- 
ciated in our minds with everything barren and inhospita- 
ble, and we did not entertain for a moment the thought 
that such a country could afford beautiful scenery and 
luxuriant vegetation. In fact, with us all it was a mooted 
question whether anything more than mosses, lichens, and 
perhaps a little grass maintained the unequal struggle for 
existence in that frozen clime. It may be imagined with 
what delight and surprise we looked upon green hills 
covered with trees and verdant thickets ; upon valleys 
white with clover and diversified with little groves of silver- 
barked birch ; and even the rocks nodding with wild roses 
and columbine, which had taken root in their clefts as if 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



29 



Nature strove to hide with a garment of flowers the evi- 
dences of past convulsions. 

Just before three o'clock we came in sight of the vil- 
lage of Petropavlovki — a little cluster of red-roofed and 
bark-thatched log houses ; a Greek church of curious 
architecture, with a green painted dome ; a strip of beach, a 
half-ruined wharf, two whale-boats, and the dismantled 
wreck of a half-sunken vessel. High green hills swept 
in a great semicircle of foliage around the little village, 
and almost shut in the quiet pond-like harbor — an inlet 
of Avatcha Bay — on which it was situated. Under fore- 
sail and main-topsail we glided silently under the shadow 
of the encircling hills into this land-locked mill pond, 
and within a stone's throw of the nearest house the 
sails were suddenly clewed up, and with a quivering of 
the ship and a rattle of chain-cable our anchor dropped 
into the soil of Asia. 



CHAPTER IV. 

It has been well observed by Irving, thai to one about 
(o visit foreign countries a long sea voyage is an ex- 
cellent preparative. To quote his own words, "The 
temporary absence of worldly scenes and employments 
produces a state of mind peculiarly fitted to receive new and 
vivid impressions." And he might have added with equal 
truth — favorable impressions. The tiresome monotony 
f>f sea life predisposes the traveller to regard favorably 
anything that will quicken his stagnating faculties and 
perceptions, and furnish new matter for thought, and the 
most commonplace scenery and circumstances afford him 
gratification and delight. For this reason one is apt, 
upon arriving after a long voyage in a strange country, to 
form a more favorable opinion of its people and scenery 
than his subsequent experience will sustain. But it seems 
to me particularly fortunate that our first impressions of a 
new country, which are most clear and vivid, and therefore 
most lasting, are also most pleasant, so that in future years 
a retrospective glance over our past wanderings will show 
the most cheerful pictures drawn in the brightest and 
most enduring colors. I am sure that the recollection of 
my first view of the mountains of Kamtchatka, the delight 
with which my eye drank in their "bright aerial tints," and 
til? romance with which my ardent fancy invested them, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 31 

will long outlive the memory of the hardships I have en- 
dured among them, the snow-storms that have pelted me 
on their summits, and the rains that have drenched me in 
their valleys. Fanciful perhaps, but I believe true. 

The longing for land which one feels after having been 
five or six weeks at sea is sometimes so strong as to be 
almost a passion. I verily believe that if the first land 
we saw had been one of those immense barren moss 
steppes which I afterward came to hold in such detesta- 
tion, I should have considered it as nothing less than the 
original site of the Garden of Eden. Not all the charms 
which Nature has lavished upon the Vale of Tempe could 
have given me more pleasure than did the little green 
valley in which nestled the red-roofed and bark-covered 
log-houses of Petropavlovski. 

The arrival of a ship in that remote and unfrequented 
part of the world is an event of no little importance ; and 
the rattling of our chain-cable through the hawse-hole? 
created a very perceptible sensation in the quiet village. 
Little children ran bareheaded out of doors, looked at us 
for a moment, and then ran hastily back to call the rest 
of the household ; dark-haired natives and Russian pea- 
sants, in blue shirts and leather pants, gathered in a group 
at the landing; and seventy-five or a hundred half-wild 
dogs broke out suddenly into a terrific chorus of howls in 
honor of our arrival. 

It was already late in the afternoon, but we could not 
restrain our impatience to step once more upon dry 
land; and as soon as the Captain's boat could be low- 
ered, Bush, Mahood, and I went ashore to look at the town, 



J2 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Petropavlovski is laid out in a style which is very 
irregular, without being at all picturesque. The idea of a 
street never seems to have suggested itself either to the 
original settlers or to their descendants; and the paths, 
such as they are, wander around aimlessly among the 
scattered houses, like erratic sheep-walks. It is impos- 
sible to go for a hundred yards in a straight line, in any 
direction, without either bringing up against the side of 
a house or trespassing upon somebody's back-yard; and 
in the night one falls over a slumbering cow, upon a fail 
average, once every fifty feet. In other respects it is 
rather a pretty village, surrounded as it is by high green 
hills, and affording a fine view of the beautiful snowy 
peak of Avatcha, which rises to a height of 11,000 feet 
directly behind the town. 

Mr. Fluger, a German merchant of Petropavlovski 
who had boarded us in a small boat outside the harbor, 
now constituted himself our guide ; and after a short walk 
around the village, invited us to his house, where we sat 
in a cloud of fragrant cigar-smoke, talking over American 
war news, and the latest "on dit" of Kamtchatkan so- 
ciety, until it finally began to grow dark. I noticed, 
among other books lying upon Mr. F.'s table, " Life 
Thoughts," by Beecher, and "The Schonberg-Cotta 
Family," and wondered that the latter had already found 
it? way to the far distant shores of Kamtchatka. 

As new-comers, it was our first duty to pay our respects 
to the Russian authorities ; and, accompanied by Mr. 
Finger and Mr. Bollman, we called upon Captain Sutko- 
voi, the resident "Captain of the port." His house, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. $$ 

with its bright red tin roof, was almost hid by a largf 
grove of thrifty oaks, through which tumbled, in a succes 
sion of little cascades, a clear, cold mountain stream 
We entered the gate, walked up a broad gravelled path, 
under the shade of the interlocking branches, and, without 
knocking, entered the house. Captain S. welcomed us 
cordially, and notwithstanding our inability to speak any 
language but our own, soon made us feel quite at home. 
Conversation however languished, as every remark had to 
be translated through two languages before it could be 
understood by the person to whom it was addressed ; and 
brilliant as it might have been in the first place, it lost its 
freshness in being passed around through Russian, Ger- 
man, and English to us. 

I was surprised to see so many evidences of cultivated 
and refined taste in this remote corner of the world, where 
I had expected barely the absolute necessaries of life, or 
at best a few of the most common comforts. A large 
piano of Russian manufacture occupied one corner of the 
room, and a choice assortment of Russian, German, and 
American music testified to the musical taste of its owner. 
A few choice paintings and lithographs adorned the walls, 
and on the centre-table rested a handsome stereoscope 
with a large collection of photographic views, and an un- 
finished game of chess, from which Capt. and Madame 
Sutkovoi had risen at our entrance. 

After a pleasant visit of an hour we took our leave, re- 
ceiving an invitation to dinner on the following day. 

It was not yet decided whether we should continue our 
voyage to the Amoor River or remain in Petropavlovski 



34 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

and begin our northern journey from there, so we still re* 
garded the brig as our home and returned every night to 
our little cabin. The first night in port was strangely 
calm, peaceful, and quiet, accustomed as we had become 
to the rolling, pitching, and creaking of the vessel, the 
swash of water and the whistling of the wind. There was 
not a zephyr abroad, and the surface of the miniature bay 
lay like a dark mirror, in which were obscurely reflected 
the high hills which formed its setting. A few scattered 
lights from the village threw long streams of radiance 
across the dark water, and from the black hillside on our 
right was heard at intervals the faint lonely tinkle of a cow- 
bell or the long melancholy howl c f a wolf-like dog. 1 
tried hard to sleep ; but the novelty of our surroundings, 
the thought that we were now in Asia, and hundreds of 
conjectures and forecastings as to our future prospects 
and adventures, put sleep for a long time at defiance. 

The village of Petropavlovski which, although not the 
largest, is one of the most important settlements in the 
Kamtchatkan peninsula, has a population of perhaps two 
or three hundred natives and Russian peasants, together 
with a few German and American merchants, drawn thither 
by the trade in sables. It is not fairly a representative 
Kamtchadal town, for it has felt in no inconsiderable de- 
gree the civilizing influences of foreign intercourse, and 
shows in its manners and modes of life and thought some 
evidences of modern enterprise and enlightenment. It has 
existed as a settlement since the early part of the eighteenth 
century, and is old enough to have acquired some civiliza- 
tion of its own ; but age in a Siberian town is no criterion 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 35 

of development, and Petropavlovski either has not at- 
tained the enlightenment of maturity, or has passed into its 
second childhood, for it is still in a benighted condition. 
Why it was and is called Petropavlovski — the village of St. 
Peter and St. Paul — I failed, after diligent inquiry, to learn. 
The sacred canon does not contain any epistle to the 
Kamtchatkans, much as they need it, nor is there any 
other evidence to show that the ground on which the vil- 
lage stands was ever visited b) either of the eminent saints 
whose names it bears. The conclusion to which we are 
driven therefore is, that its inhabitants, not being distin- 
guished for apostolic virtues, and feeling their need of 
saintly intercession, called the settlement after St. Peter 
and St. Paul, with the hope that those Apostles would feel 
a sort of proprietary interest in the place, and secure its 
final salvation without any unnecessary inquiries into its 
merits. Whether that was the idea of its original founders 
or not I cannot say ; but such a plan would be eminently 
•adapted to the state of society in most of the Siberian 
settlements where faith is strong, but where works are few 
in number and questionable in tendency. 

The sights of Petropavlovski, speaking after the man- 
ner of tourists, are few and uninteresting. It has two 
monuments erected to the memory of the distinguished 
navigators Behring and La Perouse, and there are traces 
on its hills of the fortifications built during the Crimean 
war to repel the attack of the allied French and English 
squadrons ; but aside from these, the town can boast of no 
objects or places of historical interest. To us, however, 
who had been shut up nearly two months in a close dark 



$6 TENT LIFE IN 'SIBERIA. 

cabin, the village was attractive enough of itself, and early 
on the following morning we went ashore for a ramble on 
I he wooded peninsula which separates the small harbor 
from Avatcha Bay. The sky was cloudless, but a dense 
fog drifted low over the hill tops and veiled the surround- 
ing mountains from sight. The whole landscape was 
green as emerald and dripping with moisture, but the sun- 
shine struggled occasionally through the gray cloud of 
vapor, and patches of light swept swiftly across the wet 
hillsides, like sunny smiles upon a tearful face. The 
ground everywhere was covered with flowers. Marsh vio- 
lets dotted the grass here and there with blue ; columbine 
swung its purple-hooded bells over the gray mossy rocks ; 
and wild roses appeared everywhere in dense thickets, with 
their delicate pink petals strewn over the ground beneath 
them like a colored shadow. 

Climbing up the slope of the steep hill between the 
harbor and the bay, shaking down little showers of water 
from every bush we touched, and treading under foot hun- 
dreds of dewy flowers, we came suddenly upon the monu- 
ment of La Perouse. I hope his countrymen, the French, 
have erected to his memory some more tasteful and en- 
during token of their esteem than this. It is simply a 
wooden frame, covered with sheet iron, and painted black. 
It bears no date or inscription whatever* and looks more 
like the tombstone over the grave of a criminal, than a 
monument to keep fresh the memory of a distinguished 
navigator. 

Bush sat down on a little grassy knoll to make a sketch 
of the scene, while Mahood and I wandered on up the hill 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



37 



towaid the old Russian batteries. They are several in 
number, situated along the crest of the ridge which divides 
the inner from the outer bay, and command the approaches 
to the town from the west. They are now almost over- 
grown with grass and flowers, and only the form of the 
embrasures distinguishes them from shapeless mounds of 
eaith. It would be thought that the remote situation and 
inhospitable climate of Kamtchatka would have secured tf 
its inhabitants an immunity from the desolating ravages ot 
war. But even this country has its ruined forts and grass- 
grown battle-fields ; and its now silent hills echoed not 
long ago to the thunder of opposing cannon. Leaving 
Mahood to make a critical survey of the entrenchments — ■ 
an occupation which his tastes and pursuits rendered more 
interesting to him than to me — I strolled on up the hill to 
the edge of the cliff from which the storming party of the 
Allies was thrown by the Russian gunners. No traces 
now remain of the bloody struggle which took place upon 
the brink of this precipice. Moss covers with its green 
carpet the ground which was torn up in the death-grap- 
ple ; and the nodding bluebell, as it bends to the fresh sea- 
breeze, tells no story of the last desperate rally, the hand 
to hand conflict, and the shrieks of the overpowered as 
they were thrown from the Russian bayonets upon the 
rocky beach a hundred feet below. 

It seems to me that it was little better than wanton 
cruelty in the Allies to attack this unimportant and isola- 
ted post, so far from the real centre of conflict. Could 
its capture have lessened in any way the power or re- 
sources of the Russian Government, or, by creating a diver- 



38 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

sion, have attracted attention from the decisive struggle 
in the Crimea, it would perhaps have been justifiable ; 
but it could not possibly have any direct or indirect in- 
lluence upon the ultimate result, and only brought misery 
upon a few inoffensive Kamtchadals who had never heard 
of Turkey or the "Eastern Question," and whose first in- 
timation of a war probably was the thunder of the enemy's 
cannon and the bursting of shells at their very doors. 
The attack of the Allied fleet, however, was signally re- 
pulsed, and its Admiral, stung with mortification at being 
foiled by a mere handful of Cossacks and peasants, com- 
mitted suicide. On the anniversary of the battle it is 
still customary for all the inhabitants, headed by the priests, 
to march in solemn procession round the town and over 
the hill from which the storming party was thrown, chant- 
ing hymns of joy and praise for the victory. 

After botanizing a while upon the battle-field, I was 
joined by Bush, who had completed his sketch, and we 
all returned, tired and wet, to the village. Our appear- 
ance anywhere on shore always created a sensation among 
the inhabitants. The Russian peasants and native pea- 
sants whom we met removed their caps, and held them 
respectfully in their hands while we passed; the win- 
dows of the houses were crowded with heads intent 
upon getting a sight of the " Amerikanski Chinovnikee ;" 
and even the dogs broke into furious barks and howls at 
our approach. Bush declared that he could not remem- 
ber a time in his history when he had been of so much 
consequence, and attracted such general attention as 
now; and he attributed it all to the discrimination and 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



39 



intelligence of Kamtchatkan society. Prompt and in- 
stinctive recognition of superior genius he affirmed to be 
a characteristic of that people, and he expressed deep 
regret that it was not equally so of some other people 
whom he could mention. " No reference to an allusion 
intended !" 



CHAPTER V. 

One of the first things which the traveller notices iu 
any foreign land is the language, and it is especially no- 
ticeable in Kamtchatka, Siberia, or any part of the great 
Russian Empire. What the Russians did a.t the Tower 
of Babel to have been afflicted with such a complicated, 
contorted, mixed up, utterly incomprehensible language, 
I can hardly conjecture. I have thought sometimes that 
they must have built their side of the tower higher than 
any of the other tribes, and have been punished for their 
sinful industry by this jargon of unintelligible sounds, 
which no man could possibly hope to understand before 
he became so old and infirm that he could never work on 
another tower. However they came by it, it is certainly 
a thorn in the flesh to all travellers in the Russian Em- 
pire. Some weeks before we reached Kamtchatka I de- 
termined to learn, if possible, a few common expressions, 
which would be most useful in our first intercourse with the 
natives, and 'among them the simple declarative sentence, 
"I want something to eat." I thought that this would 
probably be the first observation which I should have to 
address to any of the inhabitants, and I determined to 
learn it so thoroughly that I should never be in danger 
of starvation from ignorance. I accordingly asked the 
Major one day what the equivalent expression was in 
Russian. He coolly replied that whenever I wanted any- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 41 

thing to eat, all that I had to do was to say, " Vashavwe- 
sokeeblagarodiaee veeleekeeprevoskhodeetelstvoee takdal- 
shai." I believe I never felt such a sentiment of reveren- 
tial admiration for the acquired talents of any man as F 
did for those of the Major when I heard him pronounce, 
fluently and gracefully, this extraordinary sentence. My 
mind was hopelessly lost in attempting to imagine the 
number of years of patient toil which must have preceded 
his first request for food, and I contemplated with astonish- 
ment the indefatigable perseverance which has borne bim 
triumphant through the acquirement of such a language. 
If the simple request for something to eat presented such 
apparently insurmountable obstacles to pronunciation, 
what must the language be in its dealings with the more 
abstruse questions of theological and metaphysical sci- 
ence ? Imagination stood aghast at the thought. 

I frankly told the Major that he might print out this 
terrible sentence on a big placard and hang it around my 
neck ; but as for learning to pronounce it, I couldn't, and 
didn't propose to try. I found out afterward that he had 
taken advantage of my inexperience and confiding dispo- 
sition by giving me some of the longest and worst words 
in his barbarous language, and pretending that they 
meant something to eat. The real translation in Russian 
would have been bad enough, and it was wholly unneces- 
sary to select peculiarly hard words. 

The Russian language is, I believe, without exception, 
the most difficult of all modern languages to learn. Its 
difficulty does not lie, as would be supposed, in pronun- 
ciation. Its words are all spelled phonetically, and have 



42 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

only a few sounds which are foreign to English ; but iri 
grammar is exceptionally involved and intricate. It has 
seven cases and three genders ; and as the latter are de- 
pendent upon no definite principle whatever, but are 
purely arbitrary, it is almost impossible for a foreigner to 
learn them so as to give nouns and adjectives their 
proper terminations. Its vocabulary is very copious ; and 
its idiom has a peculiarly racy individuality of its own, 
which can hardly be appreciated without a thorough ac- 
quaintance with the popular style of conversation among 
the Russian peasants. 

The Russian, like all the Indo-European languages, is 
closely related to the ancient Sanscrit, and seems to have 
preserved unchanged, in a greater degree than any of the 
others, the old Vedic words. The first ten numerals, as 
spoken by a Hindoo a thousand years before the Chris- 
tian era, would, with one or two exceptions, be understood 
by a modern Russian peasant. 

During our stay in Petropavlovski we succeeded in 
learning the Russian for " Yes," " No," and " How do you 
do ? " and we congratulated ourselves not a little upon even 
this slight progress in a language of such peculiar difficulty. 

While upon this subject, I wish to say a few words with 
regard to the method which has been generally adopted 
by travellers and geographers of spelling Russian proper 
names in English letters. It consists briefly in using the 
English letter/ indiscriminately to represent the Russian 
sounds zh and ya, the English w for the sounds of v and 
/*, and the English tch and stch for the simple sound of 
ch in " chair." 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 43 

How so senseless a custom originated I cannot imagine. 
There is no such letter in the Russian language as W, 
and no such sound as that of w in " wood ; " and yet we 
hay 2 it used instead of Fin all such words as Wrangell, 
Woronsof, Wolga, Wladimir, Pultowa, and werst, as if the 
compilers of our geographies were all lineal descendants 
of the elder Mr. Weller, and couldn't pronounce /^other- 
wise than "we." What propriety is there in taking a 
Russian word which is pronounced Gee-zhee-ga and spel- 
ling it G-h-i-j-i-g-h-a, or in calling Kam-chat-ka Kam-skat- 
ka and spelling it K-a-m-s-t-c-h-a-t-k-a. The Russian 
sounds in those words are simple enough, and there is 
neither orthographical propriety nor common sense in the 
popular style of spelling and pronouncing them. I saw 
only a few days since the names of two prominent moun- 
tains in Kamtchatka spelled Klieutchiefskajia and Shieu- 
vailitschinskajia, and I ask, who, in the name of Noah 
Webster, could ever pronounce them without getting half 
a dozen supplementary organs of speech ? Had they been 
spelled as they should have been, Kloochefskia and Soo- 
vail-itch-in'-skia, there would have been some hope of an 
approximation to their sound. I hope, for the sake of the 
rising generation, that our next geographical reform will 
be the adoption of some simple but comprehensive system 
of spelling foreign names in English letters, and that the 
orthography of Russian proper names will not be left, as it 
has hitherto been, to chance or individual caprice. 

Our reception at Petropavlovski by both Russians and 
Americans was most cordial and enthusiastic, and the first 
three or four days after our arrival were spent in one con 



44 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tiriuotis round of visits and dinners. On Thursday we 
made an excursion on horseback to a little village called 
Avatcha, ten or fifteen versts distant across the bay, and 
came back perfectly charmed with the scenery, climate, 
and vegetation of this beautiful peninsula. The load 
wound around the slopes of grassy, wooded hills, above 
the clear blue water of the bay, commanding a view of 
the bold purple promontories which formed the gateway 
to the sea, and revealing now and then, between the 
clumps of silver birch, glimpses of long ranges of pic- 
turesque snow-covered mountains, stretching away along 
the west coast to the white solitary peak of Vill-vo-chin- 
ski, thirty or forty miles distant. The vegetation every- 
where was almost tropical in its rank luxuriance. We 
could pick handfuls of flowers almost without bending 
from our saddles, and the long wild grass through which 
we rode would in many places sweep our waists. De- 
lighted to find the climate of Italy where we had antici- 
pated the biting air of Labrador, and inspirited by the 
Deautiful scenery, we woke the echoes of the hills with 
American songs, shouted, hallooed, and ran races on our 
little Cossack ponies until the setting sun warned us that 
it was time to return. 

Upon the information which he obtained in Petropav- 
lovski, Major Abasa formed a plan of operations for the 
ensuing winter, which was briefly as follows : Mahood and 
Bush were to go on in the " Olga" to the mouth of the 
Amoor River, on the Chinese frontier, and making that 
settlement their base of supplies, were to explore the 
rough mountainous region lying west of the Okhotsk Sea 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 45 

and south of the Russian seaport of Okhotsk. The Majoi 
and I, in the meantime, were to travel northward with a 
party of natives through the peninsula of Kamtchatka, and 
strike the proposed route of the line about midway be- 
tween Okhotsk and Behring's Straits. Dividing again here, 
one of us would go westward to meet Mahood and Bus!? 
at Okhotsk, and one northward to a Russian trading sta- 
tion called Anadirsk, about four hundred miles west of 
the Straits. In this way we would cover the whole ground 
to be traversed by our line, with the exception of the bar- 
ren desolate region between Anadirsk and Behring's 
Straits, which our chief proposed to leave for the present 
unexplored. Taking into consideration our circumstances 
and the smallness of our force, this plan was probably the 
best which could possibly have been devised, but it made 
it necessary for the Major and me to travel throughout the 
whole winter without a single companion except our na- 
tive teamsters. As I did not speak Russian, it would be 
next to impossible for nie to do this without an interpre- 
ter, and the Major engaged in that capacity a young 
American fur trader, named Dodd, who had been living 
seven years in Petropavlovski, and who was familiar with 
the Russian language and the habits and customs of the 
natives. With this addition our whole force numbered 
five men, and was to be divided into three parties ; one 
for the west coast of the Okhotsk Sea, one for the north 
coast, and one for the country between the Sea and the 
Arctic Circle. All minor details, such as means of trans- 
portation and subsistence, were left to the discretion of 
the several parties. We were to live on the country, 



46 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tjavel with the natives, and avail ourselves of any and 
every means of transportation and subsistence which the 
country afforded. It was no pleasure excursion upon 
which we were about to enter. The Russian authorities 
at Petropavlovski gave us all the informatior and assist- 
ance in their power, but did not hesitate to express the 
opinion that five men would never succeed in exploring 
the eighteen hundred miles of barren, almost uninhabited 
country, between the Amoor River and Behring's Straits 
It was not probable, they said, that the Major could get 
through the peninsula of Kamtchatka at all that fall as he 
anticipated, but that if he did, he certainly could not pene- 
trate the great desolate steppes to the northward, which 
were only inhabited by wandering tribes of Chookchis and 
Koraks. The Major replied simply that he would show 
them what we could do, and went on with his preparations. 

On Saturday morning, August 26th, the " Olga" sailed 
with Mahood and Bush for the Amoor River, leaving the 
Major, Dodd, and me, at Petropavlovski, to make our 
way northward through Kamtchatka. 

As the morning was clear and sunny, I engaged a 
boat and a native crew, and accompanied Bush and Ma- 
hood out to sea. 

As we began to feel the fresh morning land-breeze, and 
to draw out slowly from under the cliffs of the west coast, 
I drank a farewell glass of wine to the success of the 
" Amoor River Exploring Party," shook hands with the 
Captain and complimented his Dutch History, and bade 
good-by to the mates and men. As I went over the 
side, the second mate seemed oveicome with emotion at 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 47 

the thought of the perils which I was about to encountei 
in that heathen country, and cried out in funny, broken 
English, "Oh, Mr. Kinney!" (he couldn't say Kennanj 
"who's a g'un to cook for ye, and ye can't get no potatus- 
ses?" as if the absence of a cook and the lack of pot:i 
toes were the summing up of all earthly privations. 1 
assured him cheerfully that we could cook for ourselves, 
and eat roots : but he shook his head mournfully, as if 
he saw in prophetic vision the state of misery to which 
Siberian roots and our own cooking must inevitably re- 
duce us. Bush told me afterward that on the voyage to 
the Amoor he frequently observed the second mate in 
deep and melancholy revery, and upon approaching him 
and asking him what he was thinking about, he answered, 
with a mournful shake of the head and an indescribable 
emphasis : " Poor Mr. Kinney ! Poor Mr. Kinney ! Poor 
Mr. Lemon ! " to use his own words. Notwithstanding 
the scepticism with which I treated his sea-serpent, he 
gave me a place in his rough affections, second only to 
" Tommy," his favorite cat, and the pigs. 

As the "Olga" sheeted home her top-gallant sails, 
changed her course more to the eastward, and swept 
slowly out between the heads, I caught a last glimpse tf 
Bush, standing on the quarter-deck by the wheel, and 
telegraphing some unintelligible words in the Morse al- 
phabet with his arm. I waved my hat in response, and turn- 
ing shoreward, with a lump in my throat, ordered the men to 
give way. The " Olga" was gone, and the kst tie which 
connected us with the civilized world seemed severed 



CHAPTER VI. 

Our time in Petropavlovski, after the departure of the 
" Olga," was almost wholly occupied in making prepara- 
tions for our northern journey through the Kamtchatkan 
peninsula. On Tuesday, however, Dodd told me that 
there was to be a wedding at , the church, and invited me 
to go over and witness the ceremony. It took place in 
the body of the church, immediately after some sort of 
morning service, which had nearly closed when we en- 
tered. I had no difficulty in singling out the happy indi- 
viduals whose fortunes were to be united in the holy bonds 
of matrimony. They betrayed their own secret by their 
assumed indifference and unconsciousness. 

The unlucky (lucky ?) man was a young, round-headed 
Cossack about twenty years of age, dressed in a dark 
frock coat trimmed with scarlet and gathered like a 
lady's dress above the waist, which, with a reckless dis- 
regard for his anatomy, was assumed to be six inches be- 
low his armpits. In honor of the extraordinary occasion 
he had donned a great white standing collar which pro- 
jected above his ears, as the mate of the " Olga" would 
say "like fore to' gallant studd'n' s'ls." Owing to a deplor- 
able lack of understanding between his cotton pants and 
his shoes they failed to meet by about six inches, and no 
provision had been made for the deficiency. The bride 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 40 

was comparatively an old woman — at least twenty years 
the young man's senior, and a widow. I thought witn a 
sigh of the elder Mr. Weller's parting injunction to his 
son, " Bevare o' the vidders, Sammy — Bevare o' the vid- 
ders," and wondered what the old gentleman would say 
could he see this unconscious "wictim" walking up to 
the altar " and thinkin' in his 'art that it was all wery cap- 
ital." The bride wore a dress of that peculiar style of 
calico known as " furniture prints," without trimming or 
ornaments of any kind. Whether it was cut "bias" or 
with "gores," I'm sorry to say I don't know, dress-mak- 
ing being as much of an occult science to me as divina- 
tion. Her hair was tightly bound up in a scarlet silk 
handkerchief, fastened in front with a little gilt button. 
As soon as the church service was concluded the altar 
was removed to the middle of the room, and the priest, 
donning a black silk gown which, contrasted strangely 
with his heavy cowhide boots, summoned the couple be- 
fore him. 

After giving to each three lighted candles tied together 
with blue ribbon, he began to read in a loud sonorous 
voice what I supposed to be the marriage service, paying 
no attention whatever to stops, but catching his breath 
audibly in the midst of a sentence and hurrying on again 
with ten-fold rapidity. The candidates for matrimony 
were silent, but the deacon, who was looking abstractedly 
out of a window on the opposite side of the church, inter- 
rupted him occasionally with doleful chanted responses. 

At the conclusion of the reading they all crossed them- \ 
selves devoutly half a dozen times in succession, and after 



50 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

asking them the decisive question the priest gave (hem 
each a silver ring. Then came more reading, at the end 
of which he administered to them a teaspoonful of wine 
out of a cup. Reading and chanting were again resumed 
and continued for a long time, the bridegroom and bride 
crossing and prostrating themselves continually, and the 
Deacon closing up his responses by repeating with the 
most astounding rapidity, fifteen times in five seconds, 
the words " Gaspodi pomeelui," " God have mercy upon 
us." He then brought in two large gilt crowns orna- 
mented with medallions, and blowing off the dust which 
had accumulated upon them since the last wedding, he 
placed them upon the heads of the bridegroom and bride. 
The young Cossack's crown was altogether too large, and 
slipped down over his head like a candle extinguisher 
until it rested upon his ears — eclipsing his eyes entirely. 
The bride's hair — or rather the peculiar manner in which 
it was "done up" — precluded the possibility of making a 
crown stay on her head, and an individual from among the 
spectators was detailed to hold it there. The priest then 
made the couple join hands, seized the groom's hand him- 
self, and they all began a hurried march around the altar — 
the priest first, dragging along the Cossack, who, blinded 
by the crown, was continually stepping on his leader's 
heels, the bride following the groom, and trying to keep 
the crown from pulling her hair down, and lastly, the 
supernumerary stepping on the bride's dress and holding 
the gilt emblem of royalty in its place. The whole per- 
formance was so indesciibably ludicrous, that I could not 
possibly keep my countenance in that sober frame which 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 5 1 

befitted the solemnity of the occasion, and neai \y scan- 
dalized the whole assembly by laughing out aloud. Three 
times they marched in this way around the altar, and the 
ceremony was then ended. The bride and groom kissed 
the crowns reverently as they took them off, walked 
around the church, crossing themselves and bowing in 
succession before each of the pictures of saints which 
hung against the wall, and at last turned to receive the 
congratulations of their friends. It was expected of 
course that the distinguished American, of whose intelli- 
gence, politeness, and suavity, so much had been heard, 
would congratulate the bride upon this auspicious occa- 
sion ; but at least one distinguished but unfortunate 
American didn't know how to do it. My acquirements in 
Russian were limited to " Yes," " No," and " How do 
you do ? " and none of these expressions were fully equal 
to the emergency. Desirous, however, of sustaining the 
national reputation for politeness, as well as of showing my 
good-will to the bride, I selected the last of the phrases 
as probably the most appropriate, and walking solemnly, 
and I fear awkwardly up, I asked the bride with a very 
low bow, and in very bad Russian — how she did ; she 
graciously replied, " cherasvwechiano khorasho pakornashae 
blagadoroo," and the distinguished American retired with 
a proud consciousness of having done his duty. I was 
not very much enlightened as to the state of the bride's 
health"; but, judging from the facility with which she 
rattled off this tremendous sentence, we concluded that 
she must be well. Nothing but a robust constitution ar_d 
the most excellent health would have enabled her to do it 



52 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Convulsed with laughter, Dodd and I made our escape 
from the church and returned to our quarters. I have 
since been informed by the Major that the marriage cere- 
mony of the Greek Church, when properly performed, has 
a peculiar impressiveness and solemnity ; but I shall never 
be able to see it now without having my solemnity over 
come by the recollection of that poor Cossack, stumbling 
around the altar after the priest with his head extinguished 
in a crown ! 

From the moment when the Major decided upon the 
overland journey through Kamtchatka, he devoted all his 
time and energies to the work of preparation. Boxes 
covered with seal skin, and intended to be hung from pack- 
saddles, were prepared for the transportation of our stores ; 
tents, bear-skins, and camp equipage, were bought and 
packed away in ingeniously contrived bundles; and every- 
thing which native experience could suggest for lessening 
the hardships of out-door life was provided in quantities 
sufficient for two months' journey. Horses were then or- 
dered from all the adjacent villages, and a special courier 
was sent throughout the peninsula by the route which we 
intended to follow, with orders to apprise the natives 
everywhere of our coming, and to direct them to remain 
at home with all their horses until after our party should 
pass. 

Thus prepared, we set out on the 4th of September for 
the far north. 

The peninsula of Kamtchatka, through which we were 
about to travel, is a long irregular tongue of land lying 
east cf the Okhotsk Sea, between the fifty-first and sixty. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 53 

second degrees of North latitude, and measuring in ex- 
treme length about seven hundred miles. It is almost 
entirely of volcanic formation, and the great range of rug 
ged mountains by which it is longitudinally divided, com- 
prises even now five or six volcanoes in a state of almost 
uninterrupted activity. This immense chain of mountains, 
which has never even been named, stretches from the fifty- 
first to the sixtieth degree of latitude in one almost con- 
tinuous ridge, and at last breaks off abruptly into the Ok- 
hotsk Sea, leaving to the northward a high level steppe 
called the " dole " or desert, which is the wandering ground 
of the Reindeer Koraks. The central and southern parts 
of the peninsula are broken up by the spurs and foot hills 
of the great mountain range into deep sequestered valleys of 
the wildest and most picturesque character, and afford scen- 
ery which, for majestic and varied beauty, is not surpassed 
in all Northern Asia. The climate everywhere, except in 
the extreme north, is comparatively mild and equable, and 
the vegetation has an almost tropical freshness and lux- 
uriance totally at variance with all one's ideas of Kam- 
tchatka. The population of the peninsula I estimate from 
careful observation at about 5,000, and it is made up of 
three distinct classes — the Russians, the Kamchadals or 
settled natives, and the Wandering Koraks. The Kam- 
chadals, who compose the most numerous class, are set- 
tled in little log villages throughout the peninsula, near 
the mouths of small rivers which rise in the central range 
of mountains, and fall into the Okhotsk Sea and the Pa- 
cific. Their principal occupations are fishing, fur trap, 
ping, and the cultivation of rye, turnips, cabbages, and po« 



54 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tatoes, which grow thriftily as far north as lat. 5 8°. Theii 
largest settlements are in the fertile valley of the Kara- 
tchatka River, between Petropavlovski and Kluche. The 
Russians, who are comparatively few in number, are scat- 
tered here and there among the Kamtchadal villages, and 
are generally engaged in trading for furs with the Kam- 
chadals and the nomadic tribes to the northward. The 
Wandering Koraks, who are the wildest, most powerful, 
and most independent natives in the peninsula, seldom 
come south of the 58th parallel of latitude, except for the 
purpose of trade. Their chosen haunts are the great des- 
olate steppes lying east of Penjinsk Gulf, where they 
wander constantly from place to place in solitary bands, 
living in large fur tents and depending for subsistence up- 
on their vast herds of tamed and domesticated reindeer. 
The government under which all the inhabitants of Kam< 
tchatka nominally live is administered by a Russian officer 
called an " Ispravnik " or local governor, who is suppos- 
ed to settle all questions of law which may arise between 
individuals or tribes, and to collect the annual "yassak" 
or tax of furs, which is levied upon every male inhabitant 
in his province. He resides in Petropavlovski, and owing 
to the extent of country over which he has jurisdiction and 
the imperfect facilities which it affords for getting about, 
he is seldom seen outside of the village where he has his 
head-quarters. The only means of transportation be- 
tween the widely separated settlements of the Kamchadals 
are pack-horses, canoes, and dog-sledges, and there is not 
such a thing as a road in the whole peninsula. I may have 
occasion hereafter to speak of " roads," but I mean by 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 55 

the word nothing more than the geometrician means by 
a "line" — simple longitudinal extension without any of 
the sensible qualities which are popularly associated with 
it. 

Through this wild, sparsely populated region, we pur- 
posed to travel by hiring the natives along our route to 
carry us with their horses from one settlement to another 
until we should reach the territory of the Wandering 
Koraks. North of that point we could not depend upon 
any regular means of transportation, but would be obliged 
to trust to " luck " and the tender mercies of the Arctic 
nomads. 



CHAPTER VII. 



I cannot remember any journey in my whole life which 
gave me more enjoyment at the time, or which is more 
pleasant in recollection, than our first horseback ride of 
^275 versts over the flowery hills and through the green 
valleys of Southern Kamtchatka, surrounded as we con- 
tinually were by the wildest and most beautiful scenery 
in all Northern Asia, experiencing for the first time the 
novelty and adventurous excitement of camp life ; and 
rejoicing in a newly-found sense of freedom and perfect 
independence, we turned our backs gaily on civilization, 
and rode away with light hearts into the wilderness, mak- 
ing the hills ring to the music of our songs and halloos. 

Our party, aside from drivers and guides, consisted of 
four men. The Major Generalissimo of the forces and 
chief of Asiatic exploration, Dodd the young American, 
whom we had engaged in Petropavlovski, and myself! 
The biting sarcasm directed by Mithridates at the army 
of Lucullus — that if they came as ambassadors they were 
too many, if as soldiers too few — would have applied 
with equal force to our small party made up as it was of 
only four men ; but strength is not always to be measured 
by numbers, and we had no fears that we should not be 
able to cope with any obstacles which might lie in our. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 57 

vva} r . We could certainly subsist ourselves where a 
larger party would starve. 

On Sunday, September 3d, our horses were loaded and 
dispatched in advance to a small village on the opposite 
side of the bay, where we intended to meet them with a 
whale-boat. On Monday the 4th we made our farewell 
calls upon the Russian authorities, drank an inordinate 
quantity of (champagne) to our own health and success, 
and set out in two whale-boats for Avatcha, accompanied 
by the whole American population of Petropavlovski. 
Crossing the bay under sprit-sail and jib, with a slashing 
breeze from the south-west, we ran swiftly into the mouth 
of the Avatcha River, and landed at the village to refresh 
ourselves for the fifteenth time with " fifteen drops}' and 
take leave of our American friends, Pierce Hunter and 
Fronefield. Copious libations were poured out to the 
tutelary saint of Kamtchatkan explorers, and giving and 
receiving three hearty cheers, we pushed off and began to 
make our way slowly up the river with poles and paddles 
toward the Kamchadal settlement of Okoota. 

Our native crew, sharing in the universal dissipation 
which had attended our departure, and wholly unaccus- 
tomed to such reckless drinking, were reduced by this 
time to a comical state of happy imbecility, in which the> 
sang gurgling Kamchadal songs, blessed the Americans, 
and fell overboard alternately, without contributing in any 
marked degree to the successful navigation of our heavy 
whale-boat. Vushine, however, with characteristic energy 
hauled the drowning wretches in by their hair, rapped 

them over the head with a paddle to restore conscious- 
3* 



58 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ness, pushed the boat off sand-bars, kept its head up 
stream, poled, rowed, jumped into the water, shouted, 
swore, and proved himself fully equal to any emer- 
gency. 

It was considerably after noon when we left Petropav- 
lovski, and, owing to the incompetency of our Kamtcha* 
dal crew, and the frequency of sand-bars, night overtook 
us on the river some distance below Okoota. Selecting 
a place where the bank was dry and accessible, we 
beached our whale-boat and prepared for our first bivouac 
in the open air. Beating down the high wet grass, 
Vushine pitched our little cotton tent, carpeted it with 
warm, dry bear-skins, improvised a table and a cloth out 
of an empty candle-box and a clean towel, built a fire, 
boiled tea, and in twenty minutes set before us a hot supper 
which would not have done discredit to the culinary skill 
of Soyer himself. After supper we sat by the fire smok- 
ing and talking until the long twilight died away in the 
west, and then rolling ourselves up in heavy blankets, we 
lay down on our bear- skins and listened to the low quack- 
ing of a half-awakened duck in the sedges, and the lonely 
cries of night-birds on the river, until at last we fell 
asleep. 

Day was just breaking in the east when I awoke. The 
mist, which for a week had hung in gray clouds around 
the mountains, had now vanished, and the first object 
which met my eyes through the open door of the tent 
was the great white cone of Villoo-chin-ski gleaming 
spectrally through the grayness of the dawn. As the 
red flush in the east deepened, all nature seemed tc 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 59 

awake. Ducks and geese quacked from every bunch 
of reeds along the shore ; the strange wailing cries of 
sea-gulls could be heard from the neighboring coast ; and 
from the clear, blue sky came down the melodious 
trumpeting of wild swans, as they flew inland to their 
feeding-places. I washed my face in the clear, cold 
water of the river, and waked Dodd to see the moun- 
tains. Directly behind our tent, in one unbroken sheet 
of snow, rose the colossal peak of Ko-rat-skoi, ten thou- 
sand five hundred feet in height, its sharp white summit 
already crimsoning with the rays of the rising sun, while 
the morning star yet throbbed faintly over the cool purple 
of its eastern slope. A little to the right was the huge 
volcano of Avatcha, with a long banner of golden smoke 
hung out from its broken summit, and the Roselskoi 
volcano puffing out dark vapor from three craters. Far 
down the coast, thirty miles away, stood the sharp 
peak of Villoochinski, with the watch-fires of morning 
already burning upon its summit, and beyond it the hazy 
blue outlines of the coast range. Shreds of fleecy mist 
here and there floated up the mountain sides, and van- 
ished like the spirits of the night-dews rising from earth 
to heaven in bright resurrection. Steadily the warm, 
rosy flush of sunrise crept down the snowy slopes of the 
mountains, until at last, with a .quick sudden burst, it 
poured a flood of light into the valley, tinging our little 
white tent with a delicate pink, like that of a wild rose- 
leaf, turning every pendent dew-drop into a twinkling 
brilliant, and lighting up the still water of the river, until 
it became a quivering, flashing mass of liquid silver. 



60 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

" I'm not romantic, but, upon my word, 

There are some moments when one can't help feeling 
As if his heart's chords were so strongly stirred 
By things around him, that 'tis vain concealing 
A little music in his soul still lingers, 
Whene'er the keys are touched by Nature's fingers." 

I was just delivering the above quotation in impas- 
sioned style, when Dodd, who never allowed his enthu- 
siasm for the beauties of Nature to interfere with a proper 
regard for the welfare of his stomach, emerged from the 
tent, and with a mock solemn apology for interrupting 
my soliloquy, said that if I could bring my mind down to 
the contemplation of material things, he would inform me 
that breakfast was ready, and begged to suggest that the 
little music in my soul be allowed to " linger," since it 
could do so with less detriment than the said breakfast. 
The force of this suggestion, seconded as it was by 2 
savory odor from the interior of the tent, could not be 
denied. I went, but still continued between the spoon- 
fuls of hot soup to "rave," as Dodd expressed it, about 
the scenery. After breakfast the tent was struck, camp 
equipage packed up, and taking seats in the stern-sheets 
of our whale-boat, we pushed off and resumed our slow 
ascent of the river. 

The vegetation everywhere, untouched as yet by the 
autumn frosts, seemed to have an almost tropical luxuri- 
ance. High wild grass, mingled with varicolored flowers, 
extended to the very river's brink £ Alpine roses and cin- 
quefoil grew in dense thickets along the bank, and dropped 
their pink and yellow petals like fairy boats upon the sur 



Tent life in Siberia. 6i 

face of the clear still water ; yellow columbine drooped 
low over the river, to see its graceful image mirrored be- 
side that of the majestic volcano; and strange black 
Kamrchatkan lilies, with downcast looks, stood here and 
there in sad loneliness, mourning in funeral garb some un» 
known flowery bereavement. 

-JSJor was animal life wanting to complete the picture. 
[ Wild ducks, with long outstretched necks, shot past us con- 
tinually in their swift level flight, uttering hoarse " quacks " 
of curiosity and apprehension; the "honking" of geese 
came to us, softened by distance, from the higher slopes 
of the mountains ; and now and then a magnificent eagle, 
startled from his solitary watch on some jutting rock, ex- 
panded his broad-barred wings, launched himself into air, 
and soared upward in ever-widening circles until he be- 
came a mere moving speck against the white snowy crater 
of the Avatchinski volcano. Never had I seen a picture 
of such wild primitive loneliness as that presented by this 
beautiful fertile valley, encircled by smoking volcanoes 
and snow-covered mountains, yet green as the vale of 
Tempe, teeming with animal and vegetable life, yet soli- 
tary, uninhabited by man, and apparently unknown. 
About noon the barking of dogs announced our approach 
to a settlement, and turning an abrupt bend in the river, 
we came in sight of the Kamtchadal village of Okoota. 

A Kamtchadal village differs in some respects so widely 
from an American frontier settlement, that it is worthy, 
perhaps, of a brief description. It is situated generally 
on a little elevation near the bank of some river or stream, 
surrounded by scattered clumps of poplar and yellovr 



f 

62 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

birch, and protected by high hills from the cold northern 
winds. Its houses, which are clustered irregularly togethei 
near the beach, are very low, and are made of logs squared 
and notched at the ends, and chinked with masses of dry 
moss. The roofs are covered with a rough thatch of long 
coarse grass, or with overlapping strips of tamarack bark, 
and project at the ends and sides into wide overhanging 
eaves. The window-frames, although occasionally glazed, 
are more frequently covered with an irregular patchwork 
of translucent fish-bladders, sewn together with thread 
made of the dried and pounded sinews of the reindeer. 
The doors are almost square, and the chimneys are nothing 
but long straight poles, arranged in a circle and plastered 
over thickly with clay. Here and there between the 
houses stand half a dozen curious architectural quadrupeds 
called "bologans," or fish storehouses. They are simply 
conical log-tents, elevated from the ground on four posts 
to secure their contents from the dogs, and resemble as 
much as anything small hay-stacks trying to walk away 
on four legs. High square frames of horizontal poles 
stand beside every house, filled with thousands of drying 
salmon ; and " an ancient and fish-like smell," which per- 
vades the whole atmosphere, betrays the nature of the 
Kamtchadals' occupation and of the food upon which they 
live. Half a dozen dug-out canoes lie bottom upward on 
the sandy shelving beach, covered with large neatly tied 
seines ; two or three long, narrow dog-sledges stand up on 
their ends against every house, and a hundred or more 
sharp-eared wolfish dogs, tied at intervals to long heavy 
poles, lie panting in the sun, snapping viciously at the flies 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 63 

and mosquitoes which disturb their rest. In the centre 
..of the village, facing the west, stands, in aH the glory of 
Kamtchatko-Byzantine aichitecture, red paint, and glitter- 
ing domes, the omnipresent Greek church, contrasting 
strangely with the rude log-houses and conical " bologans " 
over which it extends the spiritual protection of its re- 
splendent golden cross. It is built generally of carefully- 
hewn logs, painted a deep brick red, covered with a green 
sheet-iron roof, and surmounted by two onion-shaped 
domes of tin, which are sometimes colored a sky-blue and 
spangled with golden stars. Standing with all its glaring 
contrasts of color among a few unpainted log-houses in a 
primitive wilderness, it has a strange picturesque appear- 
ance not easily described. If you can imagine a rough 
American backwoods' settlement of low log-houses, clus- 
tered round a gaily-colored Turkish mosque, half a dozen 
small haystacks mounted on high vertical posts, fifteen or 
twenty Titanic wooden gridirons similarly elevated and 
hung full of drying fish, a few dog-sledges and canoes ly- 
ing carelessly around, and a hundred or more gray wolves 
tied here and there between the houses to long heavy 
poles, you will have a general but tolerably accurate idea 
of a Kamtchadal settlement of the better class. They 
differ somewhat in respect to their size and their churches ; 
but the gray log-houses, conical "bologans," drying fish, 
wolfish dogs, canoes, sledges, and fishy odors are all in- 
variable features. 

The inhabitants of these native settlements in Southern 
Kamtchatka are a dark swarthy race, considerably below 
the average stature of Siberian natives, and are very dif- 



64 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ferent in all their characteristics from the wandering tribes 
of Koraks and Chookchees who live farther north. The 
men average perhaps five feet three or four inches in 
height, have broad flat faces, prominent cheek bones, 
small and rather sunken eyes, no beards, long, lank, black 
hair, small hands and feet, very slender limbs, and a ten* 
dency to enlargement and protrusion of the abdomen. 
They are probably of Central Asiatic origin, but they cer- 
tainly have had no very recent connection with any other 
Siberian tribe with which I am acquainted, and are not at 
all like the Chookchees, Koraks, Gakoots, or Tungoos. 
From the fact of their living a settled instead of a wander- 
ing life, they were brought under Russian subjection much 
more easily than their nomadic neighbors, and have since 
experienced in a greater degree the civilizing influences of 
Russian intercourse. They have adopted almost univer- 
sally the religion, customs, and habits of their conquerors, 
and their own language, which is a very curious one, is 
already falling into disuse. It would be easy to describe 
their character by negatives. They are not independent, 
self-reliant, or of a combative disposition, like the northern 
Chookchees and Koraks ; they are not avaricious or dis- 
honest, except where those traits are the results of Rus- 
sian education ; they are not suspicious or distrustful, but 
rather the contrary; and for generosity, hospitality, sim 
pie good faith, and easy, equable good-nature under all 
circumstances, I have never met their equals. As a : ice 
they are undoubtedly becoming extinct. Since 1780 they 
have diminished in numbers more than one-half, and fre- 
quently recurring epidemics and famines w'll soon reduce 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 6g 

them to a comparatively weak and unimportant tribe, 
which will finally be absorbed in the growing Russian 
population of the peninsula. They have already lost most 
of their distinctive customs and superstitions, and only 
an occasional sacrifice of a dog to some malignant spirit 
of storm or disease enables the modern traveller to catch 
a glimpse of their original paganism. They depend 
mainly for subsistence upon the salmon, which every sum- 
mer run into these northern rivers in immense quantities 
to spawn, and are speared, caught in seines, and trapped 
in weirs by thousands. These fish, dried without salt 
in the open air, are the food of the Kamtchadals and of 
their dogs throughout the long, cold northern winter. 
During the summer, however, their bill of fare is more 
varied. The climate and soil of the river bottoms in 
Southern Kamtchatka admit of the cultivation of rye, 
potatoes, and turnips, and the whole peninsula abounds in 
animal life. Reindeer and black and brown bears roam 
everywhere over the mossy plains and through the 
grassy valleys ; wild sheep and a species of ibex are not un- 
frequently found in the mountains ; and millions upon mil- 
lions of ducks, geese, and swans, in almost endless variety, 
swarm about every river and little marshy lake through- 
out the country. These aquatic fowls are captured in 
great multitudes while moulting, by organized " drives * 
of fifty or seventy-five men in canoes, who chase the birds 
in one great flock up some narrow stream, at the end of 
which a huge net is arranged for their reception. They 
are then killed with clubs, cleaned and salted for winter 
use. Tea and sugar have been introduced by the Rus< 



66 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

sians, and have been received with great favor, the annua] 
consumption now being more than 20,000 pounds of 
each in the Kamtchatkan peninsula alone. Bread is now 
made of rye, which the Kamtchadals raise and grind foi 
themselves; but previous to the settlement of the countiy 
by the Russians, the only native substitute for bread was 
a sort of baked paste, consisting chiefly of the grated 
tubers of the purple Kamtchatkan lily. The only fruits 
in the country are berries and a species of wild cherry. 
Of the berries, however, there are fifteen or twenty dif 
ferent kinds, of which the most important are blueberries, 
" maroshkas," or yellow-cloud berries, and dwarf cran- 
berries. These the natives pick late in the fall, and 
freeze for winter consumption. Cows are kept in nearl) 
all the Kamtchadal settlements, and milk is always plenty. 
A curious native dish of sour milk, baked curds, and 
sweet cream, covered with powdered sugar and cinnamon, 
is worthy of being placed upon a civilized table. 

It will thus be seen that life in a Kamtchatkan settle- 
ment, gastronomically considered, is not altogether so 
disagreeable as we have been led to believe. {I have seen 
natives in the valley of the Kamtchatka as pleasantly 
situated, and enjoying as much comfort and almost as 
many luxuries, as nine-tenths of the settlers upon the 
frontiers of our western States and Territories.'/ 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Ar Okoota we found our horses and men awaiting oui 
arrival ; and after eating a hasty lunch of bread, milk, and 
blueberries in a little native house, we clambered awk- 
wardly into our saddles, and filed away in a long irregulai 
line through the woods, Dodd and I taking the advance, 
singing "Bonnie Dundee."-?- 

We kept continually near the group of mountains which 
had presented so beautiful an appearance in the morning ; 
but owing to the forest of birch and mountain ash which 
clothed the foot-hills, we caught only occasional glimpses 
between the tree-tops of their white snowy summits. 

Just before sunset we rode into another little native 
village, whose ingeniously constructed name defied all my 
inexperienced attempts to pronounce it or write it down. 
Dodd was good-natured enough to repeat it to me fifteen 
or sixteen times ; but as it sounded worse and more unin- 
telligible every time, I finally called it Jerusalem, and let 
it go at that. For the sake of geographical accuracy I 
have so marked it down on my map ; but let no future 
commentator point to it triumphantly as a proof that the 
lost tribes of Israel emigrated to Kamtchatka; I don't 
believe that they did, and I know that this unfortunate 
settlement, before I took pity on it and called it Jerusalem, 
was distinguished by a name so utterly barbarous thai 









68 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

neither the Hebrew alphabet nor any other known tG 
ancient literature could have begun to do it justice. 

Tired by the unusual exercise of horseback riding, I 
entered Jerusalem at a walk, and throwing my bridle to a 
Kamtchadal in blue nankeen shirt and buckskin pants, who 
saluted me with a reverential bow, I wearily dismounted 
and entered the house which Vushine indicated as the one 
which we were to occupy. 

The best room, which had been prepared for our recep- 
tion, was a low bare apartment about twelve feet square, 
whose walls, ceiling, and floor of unpainted birch planks 
were scoured to a smooth snowy purity which would have 
been creditable even to the neat housewives of the Dutch 
paradise of Broek. An immense clay oven, neatly painted 
red, occupied one side of the room ; a bench, three or four 
rude chairs, and a table, were arranged with severe pro- 
priety against the other. Two windows of glass, shaded 
by flowery calico curtains, admitted the warm sunshine; a 
few coarse American lithographs' hung here and there 
against the wall ; an air of perfect neatness, which prevailed 
everywhere, made us suddenly and painfully conscious of 
our own muddy boots and rough attire. No tools except 
axes and knives had been used in the construction of the 
house or of its furniture ; but the unplaned, unpainted 
boards had been diligently scrubbed with water and sand 
to a delicate creamy whiteness, which made amends for 
all rudeness of workmanship. There was not a plai.k in 
the floor from which the most fastidious need have hesitated 
to eat. The most noticeable peculiarity of this, as of all 
the other Kamtchadal houses which we saw in Southern 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 69 

Kamtchalka, was the lowness of its doors. They seemed 
to have been designed for a race of beings whose only 
means of locomotion were hands and knees, and to entei 
them without making use of those means required a flexi- 
bility of spinal vertebrae only to be acquired by long and 
persevering practice. Vu shine and Dodd, who had travel- 
led in Kamtchatka before, experienced no difficulty in 
accommodating themselves to this peculiarity of native 
architecture ; but the Major and I, during the first two 
weeks of our journey, bore upon the fore parts of our 
heads, bumps whose extraordinary size and irregularity 
of development would have puzzled even Spurzheim and 
Gall. If the abnormal enlargement of the bumps had 
only been accompanied by a corresponding enlargement 
of the respective faculties, there would have been some 
compensation for this disfiguration of our heads ; but un- 
fortunately " perception " might be suddenly developed 
by the lintel of a door until it looked like a goose-egg, 
without enabling us to perceive the very next beam which 
came in our way until after we had struck our heads 
against it. 

The Cossack who had been sent through the peninsula 
as an avant-courier to notify the natives of our coining, 
had carried the most exaggerated reports of our power 
and importance, and elaborate preparations had been 
made by the Jerusalemites for our reception. The house 
which was to be honored by our presence had been care- 
fully scrubbed, swept, and garnished ; the women had put 
on their most flowery calico-dresses, and tied their hair 
up in their brightest silk handkerchiefs; most of the chil 



7<D TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

dren's faces had been painfully washed and polished with 
soap- water and wads of /fibrous hemp); die whole village 
had been laid under contribution to obtain the requisite 
numbei of plates, cups, and spoons for our supper-table, 
and votive offerings of ducks, reindeers' tongues, blueber- 
ries, and clotted cream poured in upon us with a profu- 
sion which testified to the good-will and hospitality of the 
inhabitants, as well as to their ready appreciation of tired 
travellers' wants. In an hour we sat down, with appetites 
sharpened by the pure mountain air, to an excellent supper 
of cold roast duck, broiled reindeers' tongues, black bread 
and fresh butter, blueberries and cream, and wild rose 
petals crushed with white sugar into a rich delicious jam. 
We had come to Kamtchatka with minds and mouths 
heroically made up for an unvarying diet of blubber, tal- 
low-candles, and train-oil ; but imagine our surprise and 
delight at being treated instead to such Sybaritic luxuries 
as purple blueberries, cream, and preserved rose leaves ! 
Did Lucullus ever feast upon preserved rose petals in his 
vaunted pleasure-gardens of Tusculum ? Never ! The 
original recipe for the preparation of celestial ambrosia 
had been lost before ever " Lucullus supped with Lucul- 
lus ; " but it was rediscovered by the despised inhabitants 
of Kamtchatka, and is now offered to the world as the first 
contribution of the Hyperboreans to gastronomical science. 
Take equal quantities of white loaf sugar and the petals of 
the Alpine rose, add a little juice of crushed blueberries, 
macerate together to a rich crimson paste, serve in the 
painted cups of trumpet honeysuckles, and imagine yo.u self 
feasting with the gods upon the summit of high Olympus J 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 7 J 

As soon as possible after supper I stretched myself out 
upon the floor under a convenient table, which answered 
practically and aesthetically all the purposes of a four-post 
bedstead, inflated my little rubber pillow, rolled myself up, 
a la mummy, in a blanket, and slept 

The Major, always an early riser, was awake on the fol- 
lowing morning at daylight. Dodd and I, with a coinci- 
dence of opinion as rare as it was gratifying, regarded 
early rising as a relic of barbarism which no American, 
with a proper regard for the civilization of the nineteenth 

I century, would demean himself by encouraging. We had 
therefore entered into a mutual agreement upon this oc- 
casion to sleep peacefully until the " caravan," as Dodd 
irreverently styled it, should be ready to start, or at least 
until we should receive a summons for breakfast. Soon 
after daybreak, however, a terrific row began about some- 
thing, and with a vague impression that I was attending a 
particularly animated primary meeting in the'Ninth Ward, 
I sprang up, knocked my head violently against a table- 
leg, opened my eyes in amazement, and stared wildly at 
the situation. The Major, in a scanty deshabille, was 
storming furiously about the room, cursing our frightened 
drivers in classical Russian, because the horses had all 
stampeded during the night and gone, as he said with ex- 
pressive simplicity, " Chort tolko znal kooda" — "the 

I devil only knew where." This was rather an unfortunate 
beginning of our campaign ; but in the course of two hours 
mo^t of the wandering beasts were found, packs were ad- 
justed, and after an unnecessary amount of profanity from 
the drivers, we turned our backs on Jerusalem and rode 



72 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

slowly away over the rolling grassy foot-hills of the Avatch- 
inski volcano. 

It was a warm, beautiful Indian summer's day, and a 
Y peculiar stillness and Sabbath-like quiet seemed to per- 
vade all nature. The leaves of the scattering birches and 
alders along the trail hung motionless in the warm sun • 
shine, the drowsy cawing of a crow upon a distant larch 
came to our ears with strange distinctness, and we even 
imagined that we could hear the regular throbbing of the 
surf upon the far-away coast. A faint murmurous hum 
of bees was in the air, and a rich fruity fragrance came 
up from the purple clusters of blueberries which our 
horses crushed under foot at every step. All things 
seemed to unite in tempting the tired traveller to stretch 
himself out on the warm fragrant grass, and spend the 
day in luxurious idleness, listening to the buzzing of the 
sleepy bees, inhaling the sweet smell of crushed blueber- 
ries, and watching the wreaths of curling smoke which 
rose lazily from the lofty crater of the great white volcano. 
I laughingly said to Dodd that instead of being in Siberia 
— the frozen land of Russian exiles — we had apparently 
been transported by some magical Arabian Night's con- 
trivance to the clime of the " Lotus Eaters," which would 
account for the dreamy, drowsy influence of the atmo- 
sphere. " Clime of the Lotus Eaters be hanged ! " he 
broke out impetuously, making a furious slap at his face ; 
"the poet don't say that the Lotus Eaters were eaten up 
themselves by such cursed mosquitoes as these, and 
they're sufficient evidence that we're in Kamtchatka — 
thf y don't grow as big as bumble-bees in any other coun- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 73 

try ! " I reminded him mildly that according to Walton 
— old Isaac — every misery we missed was a new meicy, 
and that, consequently, he ought to be thankful for every 
mosquito that didn't bite him. His only reply was that 
"he wished he had old Isaac there." What summary 
reprisals were to be made upon old Isaac I did not 
know, but it was evident that Dodd did not approve of 
his philosophy, or of my attempt at consolation, so I de- 
sisted. 

J- Maximof, the chief of our drivers, laboring under a vague 
[, impression that, because everything was so still and quiet, 
it must be Sunday, rode slowly through the scattered 
clumps of silver birch which shaded the trail, chanting in 
a loud, sonorous voice a part of the service of the Greek 
Church, suspending this devotional exercise, occasionally, 
to curse his vagrant horses in a style which would have 
excited the envy and admiration of the most profane 
trooper of the army in Flanders. 

Oh ! let my pray-er be-e-e (Here ! you pig ! Keep in 
the road /) set forth as the in-cense ; and let the lifting 
up of my han-n-n-ds be — ( Get up ! you Korova / You 
old, blind, broken-legged son of the Evil Spirit ! WJiere 
you going to /) — an eve-n-ing sacrifice : let not my heart 
be inclined to — (Lie down again, will you / Thwack ! 
Take that, you old sleepy-headed svenya prodatye /) — any 
e-vil thing ; let me not be occupied with any evil works 
(Akh ! Wliat a horse I Bokh s'neem I). Set a watch be- 
fore my mouth, and keep the do-o-o.r of my lips — ( Whoa ! 
You merzavitz ! What did you run into that tree fori 
Ecca v or 07t ! Pod let z I Slepoi takoi I Chort tibi vasmee I) 
4 



74 TFNT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

■ — and Maximof lapsed into a strain of such ingenious 
and metaphorical profanity that my imagination was left 
to supply the deficiencies of my imperfect comprehen- 
sion. He did not seem to be conscious of any inconsis- 
tency between the chanted psalm and the profane inter- 
jections by which it was accompanied; but, even if he 
had been fully aware of it, he probably would have re- 
garded the chanting as a fair offset to the profanity, and 
would have gone on his way with serene indifference, 
fully assured that if he sang a sacred verse every time he 
swore, his celestial account must necessarily balance ! 

The road, or rather trail, from Jerusalem turned away 
to the westward, and wound around the bases of a range 
of low bare mountains, through a dense forest of poplar 
and birch. Now and then we would come out into little 
grassy openings, where the ground was covered with blue- 
berries, and every eye would be on the lookout for bears ; 
but all was still and motionless — even the grasshoppers 
chirping sleepily and lazily, as if they too were about to 
yield to the somnolence which seemed to overpower all 
nature. 

To escape the mosquitoes, whose relentless persecution 
became almost unendurable, we rode on more brkkly 
through a broad, level valley, filled with a dense growth, of 
tall umbelliferous plants, trotted swiftly up a little hill, md 
rode at a thundering gallop into the village of Ko; ak, 
amid the howling and barking of a hundred and fifty I alf- 
wild dogs, the neighing of horses, running to and fr( of 
men, and a scene of general confusion. 

At Korak we changed most of our horses and men Ua 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 75 

an "al fresco" lunch under the projecting eaves of a 
mossy Kamtchadal house, and started at two o'clock 
for Malqua, another village, fifty or sixty miles distant, 
across the water-shed of the Kamtchatka River. About 
sunset, after a brisk ride of fifteen or eighteen miles, we 
suddenly emerged from the dense forest of poplar, birch, 
and mountain ash which had shut in the trail, and came 
out into a little grassy opening, about an acre in extent, 
which seemed to have been made expressly with a view 
to camping out. It was surrounded on three sides by 
woods, and opened on the fourth into a wild mountain 
gorge, choked up with rocks, logs, and a dense growth 
of underbrush and weeds. A clear, cold stream tumbled 
in a succession of tinkling cascades down the dark ravine, 
and ran in a sandy flower-bordered channel through the 
grassy glade, until it disappeared in the encircling forest. 
It was useless to look for a better place than this to 
fpend the night, and we decided to stop while we still 
had daylight To picket our horses, collect wood for a 
fire, hang over our tea-kettles, and pitch our little cotton 
tent, was the work of only a few moments, and we were 
soon lying at full length upon our warm bear-skins, around 
our towel-covered candle-box, drinking hot tea, discussing 
Kamtchatka, and watching the rosy flush of sunset as it 
slowly faded over the western mountains. 

As I was lulled to sleep that night by the murmuring 
plash of falling water, and the tinkling of our horses' bells 
from the forest behind our tent, I thought that nothing 
could be more delightful than camp life in Kamtchatka. 

We reached Malqua on the following day, in a generally 



76 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

exhausted and used-up condition. The road had been 
terribly rough and broken, running through narrow ra* 
vines blocked up with rocks and fallen trees, across wet 
mossy swamps, and over rugged precipitous hills, where 
we dared not attempt to ride our horses. We were 
thrown repeatedly from our saddles ; our provision-boxes 
were smashed against trees, and wet through by sinking 
in swamps; girths ga/e way, drivers swore, horses fell 
down, and we all came to grief, individually and collec- 
tively. The Major, unaccustomed as he was to these 
vicissitudes of Kamtchatkan travel, held out like a Spar- 
tan ; but I noticed that for the last ten miles he rode upon 
a pillow, and shouted at short intervals to Dodd, who, 
with stoical imperturbability, was riding quietly in ad- 
vance : " Dodd ! oh, Dodd ! haven't we got most to 
that con-fmind-ed Malqua yet ? " Dodd would strike his 
horse a sharp blow with a willow switch, turn half round 
in his saddle, and reply, with a quizzical smile, that we 
were " not most there yet, but would be soon ! " — an 
equivocal sort of consolation which did not inspire us 
with much enthusiasm. At last, when it had already 
begun to grow dark, we saw a high column of white 
steam in the distance, which rose, Dodd and Vushine 
said, from the hot springs of Malqua; and in fifteen 
minutes we rode, tired, wet, and hungry, into the settle- 
ment. Supper was a secondary consideration with me 
that night. All I wanted was to crawl under a table 
where no one would step on me, and be let alone. I 
had never before felt such a vivid consciousness of my 
muscular and osseous system. Every separate bone antf 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 77 

tendon in my body asserted its individual existence by a 
distinct and independent ache, and my back in twenty 
minutes was as inflexible as an iron ramrod. I felt a 
melancholy conviction that I never would measure five 
feet ten inches again, unless I could lie on some Pro- 
crustean bed and . have my back stretched out to its 
original longitude, i Repeated perpendicular concussions 
had, I confidently believed, " telescoped" my spinal ver- 
tebrae into each other, so that nothing short of a surgical 
operation would ever restore them to their original posi- 
tions. Revolving in my mind such mournful considera* 
tions, I fell asleep u!r der a table, without even pulling off 
my boots. 



CHAPTER IX. 

It was hard work on the following morning to climb 
again into the saddle, but the Major was insensible to all 
appeals for delay. Stern and inflexible as Rhadamanthus, j 
he mounted stiffly upon his feather pillow and gave the 
signal for a start. With the aid of two sympathetic Kam- 
tchadals, who had perhaps experienced the misery of a 
stiff back, I succeeded in getting astride a fresh horse, 
and we rode away into the Genul valley — the garden of 
Southern Kamtchatka. 

The village of Malqua lies on the northern slope of the 
Kamtchatka River water-shed, surrounded by low barren 
granite hills, and reminded me a little in its situation of 
Virginia City, Nevada. It is noted chiefly for its hot 
mineral springs, but as we did not have time to visit 
these springs ourselves, we were compelled to take the 
natives' word for their temperature and their medicinal 
properties, and content ourselves with a distant view of 
the pillar of steam which marked their location. 

North of the village opens the long narrow valley of 
Genul — the most beautiful as well as the most fertile spot 
in all the Kamtchatkan peninsula. It is about thirty 
miles in length, and averages three in breadth, and is 
bounded on both sides by chains of high snow-covered 
mountains, which stretch away from Malqua in a long 
vista of white ragged peaks and sharp cliffs, almost to the 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



79 



head-waters of the Kamtchatka River. A small stream 
runs in a tortuous course through the valley, fringed with 
long wild grass four or five feet in height, and shaded 
here and there by clumps of birches, willows, and alders. 
The foliage was beginning already to assume the brilliant 
colors of early autumn, and broad stripes of crimson, 
yellow, and green ran horizontally along the mountain 
sides, marking on a splendid chromatic scale the succes 
sive zones of vegetation as they rose in regular gradation 
from the level of the valley to the pure glittering snows 
of the higher peaks. 

As we approached the middle of the valley just before 
noon, the scenery assumed a vividness of color and gran- 
deur of outline which drew forth the most enthusiastic ex- 
clamations of delight from our little party. For twenty- 
five miles in each direction lay the sunny valley through 
which the Genul River was stretched like a tangled chain 
of silver, linking together the scattered clumps of birch 
and thickets of alder, which at intervals diversified its 
banks. Like the Happy Valley of Rasselas, it seemed to 
be shut out from the rest of the world by impassable 
mountains, whose snowy peaks and pinnacles rivalled in 
picturesque beauty, in variety and singularity of form, the 
wildest dream of eastern architect. Half down their sides 
was a broad horizontal belt of dark green pines, thrown 
into strong and beautiful contrast with the pure white 
snow of the higher summits and the rich crimson of the 
mountain ash which flamed below. Here and there the 
mountains had been cleft asunder by some Titanic power, 
.eaving deep narrow gorges and wild ravines where the 



80 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

sunlight could hardly penetrate, and the eye was lost in 
soft purple haze. Imagine with all this, a warm fragrant 
atmosphere and a deep blue sky in which floated a few 
clouds, too ethereal even to cast shadows, and you will 
perhaps have a faint idea of one of the most beautiful 
landscapes in all Kamtchatka. The Sierra Nevadas may 
afford views of more savage wildness, but nowhere in 
California or Nevada have I ever seen the distinctive fea- 
tures of both winter and summer— snow and roses, bare 
granite and brilliantly colored foliage — blended into so 
harmonious a picture as that presented by the Genul 
valley on a sunshiny day in early autumn. 
flDodd and I devoted most of our leisure time during 
the afternoon to picking and eating berries. Galloping 
furiously ahead until we had left the caravan several miles 
behind, we would lie down in a particularly luxuriant 
thicket by the river's bank, tie pur horses to our feet, and 
bask in the sunshine and feast upon yellow honeyed 
"maroshkas" and the dark purple globes of delicious 
blueberries, until our clothes were stained with crimson 
spots, and our faces and hands resembled those of a couple 
of Camanches painted for the war patm\ 

The sun was yet an hour high when we approached the 
native village of Genul. We passed a field where men 
and women were engaged in cutting hay with jrude sickles^ 
returned their stare of amazement with unruffled serenity, 
and rode on until the trail suddenly broke off into a river 
beyond which stood the village. Kneeling upon our sad- 
dles we succeeded in fording the shallow stream without 
getting wet, but in a moment we came to another of about 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 8l 

the same size. We forded that, and were confronted by a 
third. This we also passed, but at the appearance of the 
fourth river the Major shouted despairingly to Dodd, 
" Ay ! Dodd ! How many ' paganni ' rivers do we have to 
wade through in getting to this beastly village ? " • "Only 
one," replied Dodd composedly. " One ! Then how 
many times does this one river run past this one settle- 
ment ? " " Five times," was the calm response. " You 
see," he explained soberly, "these poor Kamtchadalh 
haven't got but one river to fish in, and that isn't a very 
big one, so they have made it run past their settlement 
five times, and by this ingenious contrivance they catch 
five times as many salmon as they would if it only passed 
once ! " The Major was surprised into silence, and 
seemed to be considering some abstruse problem. Finally 
he raised his eyes from the pommel of his saddle, trans- 
fixed the guilty Dodd with a glance of severe rebuke, and 
demanded solemnly, " How many times must a given fish 
swim past a given settlement, in order to supply the popu- 
lation with food, provided the fish is caught every time he 
goes past ? " This rednctio ad absurdum was too much 
for Dodd's gravity; he burst into a laugh, and digging his 
heels into his horse's ribs, dashed with a great splatter into 
the fourth arm or bend of the river, and rode up on the 
other side into the village of Gentil. 

We took up our quarters at the house of the " Starosta," 
br head man of the village, and spread our bear-skins out 
on the clean white floor of a low room, papered in a funny 
way with odd copies of the London Illustrated News. A 
colored American lithograph, representing the kiss of re 
4* 



82 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

conciliation between two offended lovers, hung against th« 
wall on one side, and was evidently regarded with a good 
deal of pride by the proprietor, as affording incontestable 
evidence of culture and refined taste, and proving his fami- 
liar acquaintance with American art, and the manners and 
customs of American society. 

Dodd and I, notwithstanding our fatigue, devoted the 
evening entirely to literary pursuits ; searching diligently 
with tallow-candles over the wall and ceiling for consecu- 
tive numbers of the Illustrated News, reading court gos- 
sip from a birch plank in the corner, and obituaries of dis- 
tinguished Englishmen from the back of a door. By dint 
of industry and perseverance we finished one whole side 
of the house before bedtime, and having gained a vast 
amount of valuable information with regard to the war in 
New Zealand, we were encouraged to pursue our investi- 
gations in the morning upon the three remaining sides 
and the ceiling. To our great regret, however, we were 
obliged to start on our pilgrimage without having time to 
find out how that war terminated, and we have never been 
able to ascertain to this day ! Long before six o'clock we 
were off with fresh horses for a long ride of! ninety versts 
to Pooschin. 

The costumes of our little party had now assumed a 
very motley and brigandish appearance, every individual 
having discarded, from time to time, such articles of his 
civilized dress as proved to be inconvenient or uncom- 
fortable, and adopted various picturesque substitutes, 
which filled more nearly the requirements of a barbarous 
life. Dr dd had thrown away his cap, and tied a scarlet and 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 83 

yellow handkerchief around his head. Vushine had orna- 
mented his hat with a long streamer of crimson ribbon, 
which floated gayly in the wind like a whip-pennant. A 
blue hunting-shirt and a red Turkish fez had superseded my 
uniform coat and cap. We all carried rifles slung across 
our backs, and revolvers belted around our waists, and 
were transformed generally into as fantastic brigands as 
ever sallied forth from the passes of the Apennines to 
levy black-mail upon unwary travellers. A timid tourist, 
meeting us as we galloped furiously across the plain 
toward Pooschin, would have fallen on his knees and pulled 
out his purse without asking any unnecessary questions. 

Being well mounted on fresh, spirited horses, the Major, 
Dodd, Vushine, and I rode far in advance of the rest of 
the party throughout the day. Late in the afternoon, as we 
were going at a slashing rate across the level plain known 
as the Kamtchatka Toondra, the Major suddenly drew his 
horse violently back on his haunches, wheeled half round, 
and shouted, " Medvaid ! medvaid ! " and a large black 
bear rose silently out of the long grass at his very feet. 

The excitement, I can conscientiously affirm, was ter- 
rific. Vushine unslung his double-barrelled fowling- 
piece, and proceeded to pepper him with duck-shot; 
Dodd tugged at his revolver with frantic energy, while his 
horse ran away with him over the plain. The Major 
dropped his bridle, and implored me by all I held sacred 
not to shoot him, while the horses plunged, kicked, and 
Anorted in the most animated manner. The only calm 
and self-possessed individual in the whole party was the 
bear ! He surveyed the situation coolly for a few sec- 



84 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

onds, and then started at an awkward gallop for the 
woods. In an instant our i arty recovered its conjoint 
presence of mind, and charged with the most reckless 
heroism upon his flying footsteps, shouting frantically to 
"stop him !" popping away in the most determined and 
unterrified manner with four revolvers and a shot-gun, 
and performing prodigies of valor in the endeavor to 
capture the ferocious beast, without getting in his way or 
coming nearer to him than a hundred yards. All was 
in vain. The bear vanished in the forest like a flying 
shadow; and, presuming from his known ferocity and 
vindictiveness that he had prepared an ambuscade for us 
in the woods, we deemed it the better part of valor to 
abandon the pursuit. Upon comparing notes, we found 
that we had all been similarly impressed with his enor- 
mous size, his shagginess, and his generally savage ap 
pearance, and had all been inspired at the same moment 
with an irresistible inclination to take him by the throat 
and rip him open with a bowie-knife, in a manner so 
beautifully illustrated by the old geographies. Nothing 
but the fractiousness of our horses and the rapidity of his 
flight had prevented this desirable consummation. The 
Major even declared positively that he had seen the bear 
a long time before, and only rode over him " to scare him 
up," and said almost in the words of the redoubtable 
Falstaff, "that if we would do him honor for it, so; if 
not, we might scare up the next bear ourselves." Look- 
ing at the matter calmly and dispassionately afterward, I 
thought it extremely probable that if another bear didn't 
scare the Major up, he never would go out of his way te 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 8$ 

scare up another bear. We felt it to be olt duty, how- 
ever, to caution him against perilling the success of oui 
expedition by such reckless exploits in the way of scaring 
up wild beasts. 

Long before we reached Pooschin it grew dark ; but 
our tired horses freshened up after sunset, with the cool 
evening air, and about eight o'clock we heard the distant 
howling of dogs, which we had already come to associate 
with hot tea, rest, and sleep. In twenty minutes we were 
lying comfortably on our bear-skins in a Kamtchadal house. 

We had made sixty miles since daybreak ; but the road 
had been good. We were becoming more accustomed 
to horseback riding, and were by no means so tired as we 
had been at Malqua. Only thirty versts now intervened 
between us and the head-waters of the Kamtchatka River, 
where we were to abandon our horses and float down two 
hundred and fifty miles on rafts or in native canoes. 

A sharp trot of four hours over a level plain brought 
us on the following morning to Sherom, where rafts had 
already been prepared for our use. 

It was with no little regret that I ended for the present 
my horseback travel. The life suited me in every respect, 
and I could not recall any previous journey which had 
ever afforded me more pure, healthy enjoyment, or seemed 
more like a delightful pleasure excursion than this. All 
Siberia, however, lay before us ; and our regret at leaving 
scenes which we should never again revisit was relieved 
by anticipations of future adventures equally novel, and 
prospective scenery grander even than anything which we 
had yet witnessed. 



CHAPTER X. 

^Toa person of an indolent disposition there is some* 
thing particularly pleasant in floating in a boat down a 
river. One has all the advantages of variety, and change 
of incident and scenery, without any exertion ; all the lazy 
pleasures — for such they must be called — of boat-life, 
without any of the monotony which makes a long sea 
voyage so unendurable. I think it was Gray who said 
that his idea of paradise was "To lie on a sofa and read 
eternally new romances of Marivaux and Crebillon.'O 
Could the author of the Elegy have stretched himself out 
on the open deck of a Kamtchadal boat, covered to a 
depth of six inches with fragrant flowers and freshly cut 
hay ; could he have floated slowly down a broad, tranquil 
river through ranges of snow-clad mountains, past forests 
glowing with yellow and crimson, and vast steppes waving 
with tall, wild grass ; could he have watched the full moon 
rise over the lonely, snowy peak of the Kloo-chef-skoi vol- 
cano, bridging the river with a narrow trail of quivering 
light, and have listened to the flash of the boatman's pad- 
dles, and the low melancholy song to which they kept 
time — he would have thrown Marivaux and Crebillon 
overboard, and have given a better example of the plea- 
sures of paradise. 

I know that I am laying myself open to the charge of 
exaggeration by thus praising Kamtchatkan scenery, and 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 87 

that my enthusiasm will perhaps elicit a smile of amuse- 
ment from the more experienced traveller who has seen 
Italy and the Alps ; still, I am describing things as they 
appeared to me, and do not claim that the impressions 
which they made were those which should or would have 
been made upon a man of more extensive experience 
and wider observation. To use the words of a Spanish 
writer, which I have somewhere read, "(The man who has 
never seen the glory of the sun cannot be blamed for 
thinking that there is no glory like that of the moon ; noi 
he who has never seen the moon, for talking of the unri- 
valled brightness of the morning star.'" Had I ever sailed 
down the Rhine, climbed the Matterhorn, or seen the 
moon rise over the Bay of Naples, I should have taken 
perhaps a juster and less enthusiastic view of Kamtchatka ; 
but, compared with anything which I had previously seen 
or imagined, the mountain landscapes of Southern and 
Central Kamtchatka were superb. 

At Sherom, thanks to the courier who had preceded us, 
we found a boat or Kamtchatkan raft ready for our recep- 
tion. It was composed of three large dug-out canoes 
placed parallel to each other at distances of about three 
feet, and lashed with seal-skin thongs to stout transverse 
poles. Over these was laid a floor or platform about 
ten feet by twelve, leaving room at the bow and stern of 
each canoe for men with paddles, who were to guide and 
propel the unwieldy craft in some unknown, but, doubt- 
less, satisfactory manner. On the platform, which was 
covered to a depth of six inches with freshly cut grass, we 
pitched our little cotton tent, and transformed it with 



88 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

bear-skins, b'lankets, and pillows into a very cosey substitute 
for a state-room. Rifles and revolvers were unstrapped 
from our tired bodies, and hung up against the tent poles ; 
heavy riding boots were unceremoniously kicked off, and 
replaced by soft buckskin torbasses ; saddles were stowed 
away in convenient nooks for future use ; and all our 
things disposed with a view to the enjoyment of as much 
luxury as was compatible with our situation. 

After a couple of hours' rest, during which our heavy 
baggage was transferred to another similar raft, we 
walked down to the sandy beach, bid " prash-chi-tia " to 
the crowd which had assembled to see us off, and swung 
slowly out into the current, the Kamtchadals on the shore 
waving hats and handkerchiefs until a bend in the rivei 
hid them from sight. The scenery of the upper Kam- 
tchatka for the first twenty miles was comparatively tame 
and uninteresting, as the mountains were entirely con- 
cealed by a dense forest of pine, birch, and larch, which 
extended down to the water's edge. It was sufficient 
pleasure, howevei, at first, to lie back in the tent upon 
our soft bear-skins, watching the brilliantly colored and 
ever varying foliage of the banks, to sweep swiftly but 
silently around abrupt bends into long vistas of still 
water, startling the great Kamtchatkan eagle from his 
lonely perch on some jutting rock, and frightening up 
clouds of clamorous waterfowl, which flew in long lines 
down the river until out of sight. The navigation of the. 
upper Kamtchatka is somewhat intricate and dangerous at 
night, on account of the rapidity of the current and the 
frequency of snags ; and as soon as it grew dark oui 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 89- 

native boatmen considered it unsafe to go on. We ac 
cordingly beached our rafts and went ashore to wait fol 
moonrise. 

A little semicircle was cut in the thick underbrush at 
the edge of the beach, fires were built, kettles of potatoes 
and fish hung over to boil, and we all gathered around the 
cheerful blaze to smoke, talk, and sing American songs 
until supper-time. The scene to civilized eyes was 
strangely wild and picturesque. The dark, lonely river 
gurgling mournfully around sunken trees in its channel ; 
the dens^ primeval forest whispering softly to the passing 
wind its amazement at this invasion of its solitude ; the 
huge flaming camp-fire throwing a red lurid glare over the 
still water, and lighting up weirdly the encircling woods ; 
and the groups of strangely dressed men lounging care- 
lessly about the blaze upon shaggy bear-skins — all made up 
a picture worthy of the pencil of Rembrandt. 

After supper we amused ourselves by building an im- 
mense bonfire of drift-wood on the beach, and hurling 
blazing firebrands at the leaping salmon as they passed 
up the river, and the frightened ducks which had been 
roused from sleep by the unusual noise and light. When 
nothing remained of our bonfire but a heap of glowing 
embers, we spread our bear-skins upon the soft, yielding 
sand by the water's edge, and lay staring up at the twin- 
kling stars until consciousness faded away into dreams, 
and dreams into utter oblivion. 

I was waked about midnight by the splashing of rain in 
my face and the sobbing of the rising wind in the tree-tops, 
and upon crawling out of my water-soaked blankets found 



go TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

that Dodd and the Major had brought the tent ashore, 
pitched it among the trees, and availed themselves of its 
shelter, but had treacherously left me exposed to a pelt- 
ing rain-storm, as if it were a matter of no consequence 
whatever whether I slept in a tent or a mud-puddle ! 
After mentally debating the question whether I had better 
go inside or revenge myself by pulling the tent down over 
their heads, I finally decided to escape from the rain first 
and seek revenge at some more propitious time. Hardly 
had I fallen asleep again when " spat" came the wet can- 
vas across my face, accompanied by a shout to " get up ! 
it was time to start ; " and crawling out from under the 
fallen tent I walked sullenly down to the raft, revolving 
in my mind various ingenious schemes for getting even 
with the Major and Dodd, who had first left me out in the 
rain, and then waked me up in the middle of the night by 
pulling a wet tent down over my head. It was one o'clock 
in the morning — dark, rainy, and dismal — but the moon 
was charitably supposed to have risen, and our Kamtchadal 
boatman said that it was light enough to start. I didn't 
believe that it was, but my sleepily expressed opinions 
had no weight with the Major, and my protests were ut- 
terly ignored. Hoping in the bitterness of my heart that 
we would run against a snag, I lay down sullenly in the 
rain on the wet soaking grass of our raft, and tried to for- 
get my misery in sleep. On account of the contrary wind 
we could not put up our tent, and were obliged to cover 
ourselves over as best we could with oil-cloth blankets 
and shiver away the remainder of the night. 

About an hour after daylight we approached the Kara 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 91 

tchadal settlement o£'"Milkova," the largest native village 
in the peninsula. The rain had ceased, and the clouds 
were beginning to break away, but the air was still cold 
and raw. A courier, who had been sent down in a canoe 
from Sherom on the previous day, had notified the inhabi- 
tants of our near approach, and the signal gun which we 
fired as we came round the last bend of the river brought 
nearly the whole population running helter-skelter to the 
beach. Our reception was "a perfect ovation." The 
" city fathers," as Dodd styled them, to the number of 
twenty, gathered in a body at the landing and began bow- 
ing, taking off their hats, and shouting " zdrastuche." 
While we were yet fifty yards from the shore, a salute was 
fired from a dozen rusty flint-lock muskets, to the imminent 
hazard of our lives, and a dozen natives waded into the 
water to assist us in getting safely landed. The village 
stood a short distance back from the river's bank, and the 
natives had provided for our transportation thither two of 
the worst-looking horses which I had seen in Kamtchatka. 
Their equipments consisted of wooden saddles, modelled 
after the gables of an angular house, stirrups about twelve 
inches in length, patched up from discarded remnants of 
seal-skin thongs, cruppers of bear-skin, and halters of wal- 
rus hide twisted around the animals' noses. The excite- 
ment which prevailed when we proceeded to mount was 
unparalleled I believe in the annals of that quiet settle- 
ment. ; I don't know how the Major succeeded in getting 
upon his horse, but I do know that a dozen long-haired 
Kamtchadals seized Dodd and me, regardless of our re- 
monstrances, hauled us f his way and that until the strug 



92 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

gle to get hold of some part of our unfortunate persons re- 4 
sembled the fight over the dead body of Patroclus, and 
finally hoisted us triumphantly into our saddles in a breath- 
less and exhausted condition. One more such hospitable 
reception would forever have incapacitated us for the ser- 
vice of the Russo-American Telegraph Company ! I 
had only time to cast a hurried glance back at the Major. 
He looked like a frightened landsman straddling the end 
of a studding-sail boom run out to leeward on a fast clip- 
per, and his face was screwed up into an expression of 
mingled pain, amusement, and astonishment, which evi- 
dently did not begin to do justice to his conflicting emo- 
tions. I had no opportunity of expressing my sympathe- 
tic participation in his sufferings ; for an excited native 
seized the halter of my horse, three more with reverently 
bared heads fell in on each side, and I was led away in 
triumph to some unknown destination ! The inexpressible 
absurdity of our appearance did not strike me with its full 
force until I looked behind me just before we reached the 
village. There were the Major, Vushine, and Dodd, 
perched upon gaunt Kamtchadal horses, with their knees 
and chins on nearly the same level, half a dozen natives 
in eccentric costumes straggling along by their sides at a 
dog trot, and a large procession of bare-headed men and 
boys solemnly bringing up the rear, punching the horses 
with sharp sticks into a temporary manifestation of life and 
spirit. It reminded me faintly of a Roman triumph— the 
Major, Dodd, and I being the victorious heroes, and the 
Kamtchadals the captives, whom we had compelled to go 
" sub jugum," and who now graced our triumphal entry 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 93 

into the Seven-hilled City. I mentioned this fancy of mine 
to Dodd, but he declared that one would have had to do 
violence to his imagination to make "victorious heroes" 
out of us on that occasion, and suggested "heroic vic- 
tims " as equally poetical and more in accordance with 
the facts. His severely practical mind objected to any 
such fanciful idealization of our misery. The excitement 
increased rather than diminished as we entered the village. 
Our motley escort gesticulated, ran to and fro, and shout- 
ed out unintelligible orders in the most frantic manner ; 
heads appeared and disappeared with startling kaleido- 
scopic abruptness at the windows of the houses, and three 
hundred dogs contributed to the general confusion by 
breaking out into an infernal canine peace jubilee which 
fairly made the air quiver with sound. At last we stopped 
in front of a large one-story log-house, and were assisted 
by twelve or fifteen natives to dismount and enter. As 
soon as Dodd could collect his confused faculties he de- 
manded, "What in the name of all the Russian saints was 
the matter with this settlement ; was everybody insane ? n 
Vushine was ordered to send for the Starosta, or head man 
of the village, and in a few moments he made his appear- 
ance, bowing with the impressive persistency of a Chinese 
mandarin. 

A prolonged colloquy then took place in Russian be- 
tween the Major and the Starosta, broken by explanatory 
commentaries in the Kamtchadal language, which did not 
tend materially to elucidate the subject. An evident and 
increasing disposition to smile gradually softened the stern 
lines of the Major's face, until at last he burst forth into a 



94 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

laugh of such infectious hilarity that, notwithstanding my 
ignorance of the nature of the fun, I joined in with hearty 
sympathy. As soon as he partially recovered his com- 
posure he gasped out, '<The natives took you for the Em 
peror !" — and then he went off in another spasm of merri- 
ment which threatened to terminate either in suffocation 
or apoplexy. Lost in bewilderment I could only smile 
feebly until he recovered sufficiently to give me a more 
intelligible explanation of his mirth. It appears that the 
courier who had been sent from Petropavlovski to apprise 
the natives throughout the peninsula of our coming, had 
carried a letter from the Russian Governor giving the 
names and occupations of the members of our party, and 
that mine had been put down as " Yagor Kennan, Tele- 
graphist and Operator." It so happened that the Starosta 
of Milkova possessed the rare accomplishment of knowing 
how to read Russian writing, and the letter had been hand 
ed over to him to be communicated to the inhabitants of 
the village. He had puzzled over the unknown word 
" telegraphist " until his mind was in a hopeless state of 
bewilderment, but had not been able to give even the 
wildest conjecture as to its probable meaning. " Opera- 
tor" however, had a more familiar sound ; it was not 
spelled exactly in the way to which he had been accus- 
tomed, but it was evidently intended for " Imperator," 
the Emperor !— and with his heart throbbing with the ex- 
citement of this startling discovery, and his hair standing 
on end from the arduous nature of his exegetical labors, 
he rushed furiously out to spread the news that the Czar 
of all the Russias was on a visit to Kamtchatka and would 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 95 

pass through Milkova in the course of three days ! The 
excitement which this alarming announcement created 
can better be imagined than described. The all-absorb- 
ing topic of conversation was, how could Milkova best 
show its loyalty and admiration for the Head of the Im- 
perial Family, the Right Arm of the Holy Greek Church, 
and the Mighty Monarch of seventy millions of devoted 
souls ? Kamtchadal ingenuity gave it up in despair ! 
What could a poor Kamtchatkan village do for the enter- 
tainment of its august master ? When the first excite- 
ment passed away, the Starosta was questioned closely as 
to the nature of the letter which had brought this news, 
and was finally compelled to admit that it did not say 
distinctly, " Alexander Nikolai vitch, Imperator" but 
"Yagor" something " Operator" which he contended was 
substantially the same thing, because if it didn't mean the 
Emperor himself it meant one of his most intimate rela- 
tions, who was entitled to equal honor and must be 
treated with equal reverence. The courier had already 
gone, and had said nothing about the rank of the travellers 
whom he heralded, except that they had arrived at Petro- 
pavlovski in a ship, wore gorgeous uniforms of blue and 
gold, and were being entertained by the Governor and the 
Captain of the port. Public opinion finally settled down 
into the conviction that " 6^-erator," etymologically con- 
sidered, was first cousin to " ///z-perator," and that it must 
mean some dignitary of high rank connected with the im- 
perial family. With this impression they had received us 
when we arrived, and had, poor fellows, done their very 
best to show us proper honor and respect. It had been a 



g6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

severe ordeal to us, but it had proved in the most un 
mistakable manner the loyalty of the Kamtchadal inhab- 
itants of Milkova to the reigning family of Russia. 

■ The Major explained to the Starosta our real rank and 
occupation, but it did not seem to make any difference 
whatever in the cordial hospitality of our reception^ We 
were treated to the very best which the village afforded, 
and stared at with a curiosity which showed that travellers 
through Milkova had hitherto been few and far between. 
After tasting experimentally various curiously com- 
pounded native dishes, and eating some more substantial 
bread and reindeer meat, we returned in state to the 
landing-place, accompanied by another procession, re- 
ceived a salute of fifteen guns, and resumed our voyage 
dowtt the river. 



CHAPTER XL 

( The valley of this river is unquestionably the most 
fertile part of the whole Kamtchatkan peninsula. Nearly 
all of the villages which we passed were surrounded by 
fields of rye and neatly fenced gardens ; the banks every- 
where were either covered with timber or waving with 
wild grass five feet in height ; and the luxuriant growth in 
many places of flowers and weeds testified to the richness 
of the soil and the warm humidity of the climate. Prim- 
roses, cowslips, marsh violets, buttercups, wild roses, 
cinque-foil iris, and azure larkspur grow everywhere 
throughout the valley in the greatest abundance ; and a 
peculiar species of umbelliferae, with hollow-jointed stems, 
attains in many places a height of six feet, and grows so 
densely that its huge serrated leaves hide a man from 
sight at a distance of a few yards. All this is the growth 
of a single summer. 

There are twelve native settlements between the head 
waters of the river and the Kloochefskoi volcano, and nearly 
all are situated in picturesque locations, and surrounded 
by gardens and fields of rye. | Nowhere does the traveller 
see any evidences of the barrenness, sterility, and frigid 
desolation which have always been associated with the 
name of Kamtchatka. 

After leaving our hospitable native friends and our 
imperial dignity at Milkova, on Monday morning, we 
5 



98 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

floated slowly down the river for three days, catching 
distant glimpses of the snowy mountain ranges which 
bounded the valley, roaming through the woods in search 
of bears and wild cherries, camping at night on the river- 
bank among the trees, and living generally a wild, free, 
delightful life. We passed the native settlements of 
Keerganic, Marshoora, Schapina, and Tolbatchik, where 
we were received with boundless hospitality; and on 
Wednesday, September 13th, camped in the woods south 
of Kozerefski, only a hundred and twenty versts distant 
from the village of Kloochay. It rained nearly all day 
Wednesday, and we camped at night among the dripping 
trees, with many apprehensions that the storm would hide 
the magnificent scenery of the lower Kamtchatka, through 
which we were about to pass. It cleared away, however, 
before midnight ; and I was awakened at an early hour in 
the morning by a shouted summons from Dodd to get 
up and look at the mountains. There was hardly a 
breath of air astir, and the atmosphere had that peculiar 
crystalline transparency which may sometimes be seen 
in California. A heavy hoar-frost lay white on the boats 
and grass, and a few withered leaves dropped still and 
wavering through the still cool air from the yellow birch 
trees which overhung our tent. There was not a sound 
to break harshly upon the silence of dawn ; and only the 
tracks of wild reindeer and prowling wolves on the 
smooth sandy beach showed that there was life in the 
quiet lonely wilderness around us. The sun had not yet 
risen, but the whole eastern heavens were glaring with 
yellow light, even up to the morning-star, which, although 






TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



99 



"paling itii ineffectual fires," still maintained its position 
as a glittering outpost between the contending powers 
of night and day. Far away to the northeastward, over 
the yellow forest, in soft purple relief against the red sun- 
rise, stood the high sharp peaks of Kloochay, grouped 
around the central wedge-like cone of the magnificent 
Kloochefskoi volcano. Nearly a month before I had 
seen these noble mountains from the tossing deck of a 
little brig, seventy-five miles at sea ; but I little thought 
that I should see them again from a lonely camp in the 
woods of the Kamtchatka River. 

For nearly half an hour Dodd and I sat quietly on the 
beach, absent-mindedly throwing pebbles into the still 
water, watching the illumination of the distant mountains 
by the rising sun. and talking over the adventures which 
we had experienced since leaving Petropavlovski. With 
what different impressions had I come to look at Siberian 
life since I first saw the precipitous coast of Kamtchatka 
looming up out of the blue water of the Pacific ! 

Then it was an unknown, mysterious land of glaciers 
and snowy mountains, filled with possibilities of adventure, 
but lonely and forbidding in its uninhabited wildness. 
Now it was no longer lonely or desolate. Every moun- 
tain peak was associated with some hospitable village 
nestled at its feet ; every little stream was connected with 
the great world of human interests by some pleasant 
J ^collection of camp life. The possibilities of adventure 
were still there, but the imaginary loneliness and desola- 
tion had vanished with one week's experience. I thought 
of the vague conceptions which I had formed in America 



^4 7 -r^oCt. 






IOO TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

of this beautiful country, and tried to compare them with 
the more recent impressions by which they had been 
crowded out, but the effort was vain. I could not sur- 
round myself again with the lost intellectual atmosphere 
of civilization, nor reconcile those earlier anticipations 
with this strangely different experience. The absurd 
fancies, which had seemed so vivid and so true only three 
months before, had now faded away into the half-remem- 
bered imagery of a dream, and nothing was real but the 
tranquil river which flowed at my feet, the birch tree 
which dropped its yellow leaves upon my head, and the 
far-away purple mountains. 

I was roused from my revery by the furious beating of 
a tin mess-kettle, which was the summons to breakfast. 
In half an hour breakfast was despatched, the tent struck, 
camp equipage packed up, and we were again under 
way. We floated all day down the river toward Kloo- 
chay, getting ever changing views of the mountains as they 
were thrown into new and picturesque combinations by 
our motion to the northward. We reached Kozerefski at 
dark, and, changing our crew, continued our voyage 
throughout the night. At daybreak on Friday we passed 
Kristee, and at two o'clock in the afternoon arrived at 
Kloochay, having been just eleven days out from Petro- 
pavlovski. 

The village of Kloochay is situated in an open plain on 
the right bank of the Kamtchatka River, at the very foot 
of the magnificent Kloochefskoi volcano, and has nothing 
to distinguish it from other Kamtchadal towns, except the 
boldness and picturesque beauty of its situation. It lies 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. IOI 

exactly in the midst of the group of superb isolated peaks 
which guard the entrance to the river, and is shadowed 
over frequently by the dense, black smoke of two vol- 
canoes. It was founded early in the eighteenth century 
by a few Russian peasants who were taken from theii 
homes in Central Russia, and sent with seeds and farm- 
ing utensils to start a colony in far-away Kamtchatka. 
After a long adventurous journey of six thousand miles 
across Asia by way of Tobolsk, Irkootsk, Yakootsk, and 
Kolyma, the little band of involuntary emigrants finally 
reached the peninsula, and settled boldly on the Kam- 
tchatka River, under the shadow of the great volcano. 
Here they and their descendants have lived for more than 
a hundred years, until they have almost forgotten how 
they came there and by whom they were sent. Notwith- 
standing the activity and frequent eruption of the two vol- 
canoes behind the village, its location never has been 
changed, and its inhabitants have come to regard with 
indifference the occasional mutterings of warning which 
come from the depths of the burning craters, and the 
showers of ashes which are frequently sifted over their 
houses and fields. Never having heard of Herculaneum 
or Pompeii, they do not associate any possible danger 
with the fleecy cloud of smoke which floats in pleasant 
weather from the broken summit of Kloochefskoi, or the 
low thunderings by which its smaller, but equally danger- 
ous, neighbor asserts its wakefulness during the long 
winter nights. Another century may perhaps elapse 
without bringing any serious disaster upon the little vil- 
lage ; but after hearing the Kloochefskoi volcano rumble 



102 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

at a distance of sixty miles, and seeing the dense volumes 
of black smoke which it occasionally emitted, I felt en- 
tirely satisfied to give its volcanic majesty a wide berths 
and wondered at the boldness of the Kamtchadals ir 
selecting such a site for their settlemeut. 

The Kloochefskoi is one of the highest as well as one of 
the most uninterruptedly active volcanoes in all the great 
volcanic chain of the North Pacific. Since the seven- 
teenth century very few years have elapsed without an 
eruption of greater or less violence, and even now, at ir- 
regular intervals of a few months, it bursts out into flame 
and scatters ashes over the whole width of the peninsula 
and on both seas. The snow in winter is frequently so 
covered with ashes for twenty-five miles around Kloochay 
that travel upon sledges becomes almost impossible. 
Many years ago, according to the accounts of the natives, 
there was an eruption of terrible magnificence. It began 
in the middle of a clear, dark winter's night, with loud thun- 
derings and tremblings of the earth, which startled the in*- 
habitants of Kloochay from their sleep and brought them 
in affright to their doors. Far up in the dark winter's sky, 
16,000 feet above their heads, blazed a column of lurid 
flame from the crater, crowned by a great volume of fire- 
lighted smoke. Amid loud rumblings and dull reverbera- 
tions from the interior the molten lava began to flow in 
broad fiery rivers down the snow-covered mountain side, 
until for half the distance to its base it was one glowing 
mass of fire which lighted up the villages of Kristee, Ko- 
zerefski, and Kloochay like the sun, and illuminated the 
\i hole countr) within a radius of twenty-five miles. This 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. lOl 

eruption is said to have scattered ashes over the penin 
sula for three hundred versts to a depth of one and a half 
inch ! 

The lava has never yet descended much, if any, below 
the snow line ; but I see no reason why it may not at some 
future time overwhelm the settlement of Kloochay and 
fill the channel of the Kamtchatka River with a fiery flood. 

The volcano, so far as I know, has never been ascend- 
ed, and its reported height, 16,500 feet, is probably the 
approximative estimate of some Russian officer. It is 
certainly, however, the highest peak of the Kamtchatkan 
peninsula, and is more likely to exceed 16,000 feet than 
fall below it. We felt a strong temptation to try and scale 
its smooth snowy sides and peer over into its smoking 
crater ; but it would have been folly to make the attempt 
without two or three weeks' training, and we had not the 
time to spare. The mountain is nearly a perfect cone, 
and from the village of Kloochay it is so deceitfully fore- 
shortened that the last 3,000 feet appear to be absolutely 
perpendicular. There is another volcano whose name, 
if it have any, I could not ascertain, standing a short dis- 
tance south-east of the Kloochefskoi, and connected with 
it by an irregular broken ridge. It does not approach the 
latter in height, but it seems to draw its fiery supplies from 
the same source, and is constantly puffing out black coaly 
smoke, which an east wind drives in great clouds across 
the white sides of Kloochefskoi until it is sometimes al- 
most hidden from sight. 

We were entertained at Kloochay ir the large comfort 
able house of the Starosta, or local magistrate of the vi] 



104 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

lage. The walls of our room were gayly hung with figured 
calico, the ceiling was covered with white cotton drill, 
and the rude pine furniture was scoured with soap and 
sand to the last attainable degree of cleanliness. A 
coarsely executed picture, which I took to be Moses, 
hung in a gilt frame in the corner ; but the sensible prophet 
had apparently shut his eyes to avoid the smoke of the 
innumerable votive candles which had been burned in his 
honor, and the expression of his face was somewhat mar- 
red in consequence. ( Table-cloths of American manufac- 
ture were spread on the tables, pots of flowers stood in 
the curtained windows, a little mirror hung against the 
wall opposite the door, and all the little fixtures and rude 
ornaments of the room were disposed with a taste and a 
view to general effect which the masculine mind may ad- 
mire, but never can imitate. American art, too, had lent 
a grace to this cottage in the wilderness, for the back of 
one of the doors was embellished with pictorial sketches 
of Virginian life and scenery from the skilful pencil of 
Porte Crayon. I thought of the well-known lines of 
Pope — 

" The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare, 
But wonder how the d they came there." 

In such comfortable, not to say luxurious quarters as 
these, we succeeded, of course, in passing away pleasantly 
the remainder of the day. 

At Kloochay we were called upon to decide what 
route we would adopt in our journey to the northward. 
The shortest, and in many respects the best, was that 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 05 

usually taken by the Russian traders — crossing iho. cen- 
tral range of mountains to Tigil, by the pass of the 
Yolofka, and then following up the west coast of :he 
peninsula to the head of the Okhotsk Sea. The only 
objections to this were the lateness of the season and 
the probability of finding deep snow in the mountain 
passes. Our only alternative was to continue our jour- 
ney from Kloochay up the eastern coast to a settlement 
called Dranka, where the mountains sank into insignifi- 
cant hills, and cross there to the Kamtchadal village of 
Lesnoi, on the Okhotsk Sea. This route was consider- 
ably longer than the one by the Yolofka Pass, but its 
practicability was much more certain. 

After a great many prolonged consultations with sundry 
natives, who were supposed tc know something about 
the country, but who carefully avoided responsibility by 
telling as little as possible, the Major concluded to try 
the Yolofka Pass, and ordered canoes to be ready on 
Saturday morning to carry us up the Yolofka Rver. 

At the worst, we could only fail to get over the moun- 
tains, and there would be time enough then to return to 
Kloochay, and try the other route before the opening of 
winter. 

As soon as we had decided the momentous question 
of our route, we gave ourselves up to the unrestrained 
enjoyment .of the few pleasures which the small and 
sedate village of Kloochay afforded. There was no 
afternoon promenade where we could, as the Russians 
Bay, "Show ourselves and see the people;" nor would 
an exhibition of our dilapidated and weather-stained ± at- 

5* 



106 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ments on a public promenade have been quite the propel 
thing, had it been possible. We must try something else. 
The only places of amusement of which we could heai 
were the village bath-house and the church j and the 
Major and I started out, late in the afternoon, with the 
intention of "doing" these points of interest in the most 
approved style of modern tourists. E'or obvious reasons 
we took the bath-house first. Taking a steam-bath was 
a very mild sort of dissipation ; and if it were true that 
'(cleanliness was next to godliness, 7 ) the bath-house cer- 
tainly should precede the church. I had often heard 
Dodd speak of the "black baths" of the Kamtchadals ; 
and without knowing definitely what he meant, I had a 
sort of vague impression that these "black baths" were 
taken in some inky fluid of Kamtchatkan manufac- 
ture, which possessed peculiar detersive properties. I 
could think of no other reason than this for calling a 
bath "black." Upon entering the "black bath," how- 
ever, at Kloochay, I saw my mistake, and acknowledged 
at once the appropriateness of the adjective. Leaving 
our clothes in a little rude entry, which answered the 
purposes without affording any of the conveniences of a 
dressing-room, we stooped to a low fur-clad door and 
entered the bath-room proper, which was certainly dark 
enough and black enough to justify the gloomiest, murki- 
est adjective in the language. A tallow candle, which 
was burning feebly on the floor, gave just light enough 
to distinguish the outlines of a low, bare apartment, about 
ten feet square, built solidly of unhewn logs, without a 
single opening for the admission of air or light. Every 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 107 

square inch of the walls and ceiling was perfectly black 
with a sooty deposit from the clouds of smoke with which 
the room had been filled in the process of heating. A 
large pile of stones, with a hollow place underneath fol 
a fire,, stood in one end of the room, and a series of 
broad steps, which did not seem to lead anywhere, occu- 
pied the other. As soon as the fire had gone out the 
chimney-hole had been closed and hermetically sealed, 
and the pile of hot stones was now radiating a fierce dry 
heat, which made /aspiration a painful duty, and per- 
spiration an unpleasant necessity. The presiding spirit 
of this dark, infernal place of torture soon made his 
appearance in the shape of a long-haired, naked Kam- 
tchadal, and proceeded to throw water upon the pile of 
red-hot stones until they hissed like a locomotive, and 
the candle burned blue in the centre of a steamy halo. 
I thought it was hot before, but it was a Siberian winter 
compared with the temperature which this manoeuvre 
produced. My very bones seemed melting with fervent 
heat. ( After getting the air of the room as nearly as pos- 
sible up to 212 , the native seized me by the arm, spread 
me out on the lowest of the flight of steps, poured boiling 
suds over my face and feet with reckless impartiality, and 
proceeded to knead me up, as if he fully intended to 
separate me into my original elements. I will not at- 
tempt to describe the number, the variety, and the dia- 
bolical ingenuity of the tortures to which I was subjected 
during the next twenty minutes. / I was scrubbed, rolled, 
pounded, drenched with cold water and scalded with 
hot, beaten with bundles of birch twigs, rubbed down 



Io8 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

with wads of hemp which scraped like brick-bats, and 
finally left to recover my breath upon the highest and 
hottest step of the whole stairway.;\ A douse of cold 
water finally put an end to the ordeal and to my misery ; 
and groping my way out into the entry, I proceeded, with 
chattering teeth, to dress. In a moment I was joined by 
the Major, and we resumed our walk, feeling like disem- 
bodied spirits. ^ 

Owing to the lateness of the hour, we were compelled 
to postpone indefinitely our visit to the church ; but we 
had been sufficiently amused for one day, and returned 
to the house satisfied, if not delighted, with our experience 
of Kamtchatkan black baths. 

The evening was spent in questioning the inhabitants 
of the village about the northern part of the peninsula, 
and the facili/ies for travel among the wandering Koraks; 
and before n.ne o'clock we went to bed, in order that we 
might make an early start on the following morning. 



CHAPTER XII. 

There was a great variety in the different modes of 
transportation which we were compelled to adopt in oui 
journey through Kamtchatka ; and to this fact was attri- 
butable perhaps, in a great degree, the sense of novelty 
and freshness which during our three months' travel in 
the peninsula never entirely wore off. We experienced 
in turn the pleasures and discomforts of whale-boats, 
horses, rafts, canoes, dog sledges, reindeer sledges, and 
snow shoes ; and no sooner did we begin to tire of the 
pleasures and ascertain the discomforts of one, than we 
were introduced to another. 

At Kloochay we abandoned our rafts, and took Kam- 
tchadal log canoes, which could be propelled more easily 
against the rapid current of the Yolofka River, which we 
had now to ascend. The most noticeable peculiarity of 
this species of craft, and a remarkable one it is, is a 
decided and chronic inclination to turn its bottom side 
upward and its upper side bottomward without the slight- 
est apparent provocation. I was informed by a reliable 
authority that a boat capsized on the Kamtchatka, just 
previous to our arrival, through the carelessness of a Kam- 
tchadal in allowing a jack-knife to remain in his right-hand 
pocket without putting something of a corresponding 
weight into the other; and that the Kamtchadal fashion of 



IZO TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

parting the hair in the middle originated in atten pts to 
preserve personal equilibrium while navigating these 
canoes. I should hav« been somewhat inclined to doubt 
these remarkable, and not altogether new stories, were it 
not for the reliability and unimpeachable veracity of my 
informant, Mr. Dodd. The seriousness of the subject :s 
a sufficient guarantee that he would not trifle with my 
feelings by making it the pretext for a joke. 

We indulged ourselves on Saturday morning in a much 
later sleep than was consistent with our duty, and it was 
almost eight o'clock before we went down to the beach, 
j ..Upon first sight of the frail canoes, to which our desti- 
nies and the interests of the Russian-American Telegraph 
were to be intrusted, there was a very general expression 
of surprise and dissatisfaction. One of our party, with 
the rapid a priori reasoning for which he was distinguish- 
ed, came at once to the conclusion that a watery death 
would be the inevitable termination of a voyage made in 
such vessels, and he evinced a very marked disinclination 
to embark. It is related of a great warrior, whose Com- 
mentaries were the detestation of my early life, that 
during a very stormy passage of the Ionian Sea he cheer- 
ed up his sailors with the sublimely egotistical assurance 
that they carried " Caesar and his fortunes ; " and that, 
consequently, nothing disastrous could possibly happen 
to them. The Kamtchatkan Caesar, however, on this 
occasion seemed to distrust his own fortunes, and the at- 
tempts at consolation came from the opposite quarter. 
His boatman did not tell him, " Cheer up, Caesar, a Kara- 
tchadal and his fortunes are carrying you," but he did as- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. Ill 

sure him that he had navigated the river for several years, 
and had " never been drowned once." What more cou.d 
Caesar ask ! — After some demur we all took seats upon 
bear-skins in the bottoms of the canoes, and pushed off. 

All other features of natural scenery in the vicinity of 
Kloochay sink into subordination to the grand centra] 
figure of the Kloochefskoi volcano, the monarch of Si- 
berian mountains, whose sharp summit, with its motion- 
less streamer of golden smoke, can be seen any where within 
a radius of a hundred miles. All other neighboring beau- 
ties of scenery are merely tributary to this, and are valued 
only according to their capability of relieving and setting 
forth this magnificent peak, whose colossal dimensions 
rise in one unbroken sweep of snow from the grassy val- 
leys of the Kamtchatka and Yolof ka, which terminate at. 
its base. " Heir of the sunset and herald of morning," its 
lofty crater is suffused with a roseate blush long before 
the morning mists and darkness are out of the valleys, 
and long after the sun has set behind the purple moun- 
tains of Tigil. At all times, under all circumstances, and 
in all its ever-varying moods, it is the most beautiful 
mountain I have ever seen. Now it lies bathed in the 
warm sunshine of an Indian summer's day, with a few 
fleecy clouds resting at the snow-line and checkering its 
sides with purple shadows; then it envelops itself in 
dense volumes of black volcanic smoke, and thunders out 
a hoarse warning to the villages at its feet ; and finally, 
toward evening, it gathers a mantle of gray mists around 
its summit, and rolls them in convulsed masses down its 
sides, until it stands in the clear atmosphere a colossal 



112 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

"pillar of cloud," sixteen thousand feet in height, resting 
upon fifty square miles of shaggy pine forest. 

You think nothing can be more beautiful than the 
delicate tender color, like that of a wild-rose leaf, which 
binges its snows as the sun sinks in a swirl of red vapors 
in the west; but "visit it by the pale moonlight," when 
its hood of mist is edged with silver, when black shadows 
gather in its deep ravines, and white misty lights gleam 
from its snowy pinnacles — when the host of starry con- 
stellations seems to circle around its lofty peak, and the 
tangled silver chain of the Pleiades to hang' upon one of 
its rocky spires — then say, if you can, that it is more beau- 
tiful by daylight. 

We entered the Yolofka about noon. This river 
empties into the Kamtchatka from the north, twelve 
versts above Kloochay. Its shores are generally low and 
marshy, and thickly overgrown with rushes and reedy 
grass, which furnish cover for thousands of ducks, geese, 
and wild swans. We reached, before night, a native vil- 
lage called Hartchina, and sent at once for a celebrated 
Russian guide by the name of Nicolai Bragan, whom we 
hoped to induce to accompany us across the mountains. 

From Bragan we learned that there had been a heavy 
fall of snow on the mountains during the previous week ; 
but he thought that the warm weather of the last three or 
four days had probably melted most of it away, and that 
the trail would be at least passable. He was willing at all 
events to try and take us across. Relieved of a good 
deal of anxiety, we left Hartchina early on the morning of 
the 17th, and resumed our ascent of the river. On ac- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA 113 

count of the rapidity of the current in the main stream we 
turned aside into one of the man)' " protoks " or arms into 
which the river was here divided, and poled slowly up for 
four hours. The channel was very winding and narrow, so 
that one could touch with a paddle the bank on either 
side, and in many places the birches and willows met over 
the stream, dropping yellow leaves upon our heads as we 
passed underneath. Here and there long scraggy tree- 
trunks hung over the bank into the water, logs green with 
moss thrust their ends up from the depths of the stream, 
and more than once we seemed about to come to a stop 
in the midst of an impassable swamp. Nicolai Alexan- 
draitch, our guide, whose canoe preceded ours, sang for 
our entertainment some of the monotonous melancholy 
songs of the Kamtchadals, and Dodd and I made the 
woods ring in turn with the enlivening strains of " King- 
dom coming" and " Upidee." When we tired of music 
we made an amicable adjustment of our respective legs in 
the narrow canoe, and lying back upon our bear-skins slept 
soundly, undisturbed by the splash of the water and the 
scraping of poles at our very ears. We camped that night 
on a high sandy beach over the water, ten or twelve miles 
south of Yolof ka. 

It was a warm still evening, and as we all sat on our 
Lear-skins around the camp-fire, smoking and talking 
over the day's adventures, our attention was suddenly at- 
tracted by a low rumbling, like distant thunder, accompa- 
nied by occasional explosions. " What's that ? " demanded 
the Major quickly. "That," said Nicolai soberly, as 
he emptied his lungs of smoke, "is the Kloochefskoi 



i 14 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

volcano talking to the peak of Soovailitch." " Nothing 
private in the conversation, I suppose," observed Dodd 
dryly ; "he shouts it out loud enough." The reverberations 
continued for several minutes, but the peak of Soovailitch 
made no response. That unfortunate mountain had reck 
lessly expended its volcanic energies in early life, and was 
now left without a voice to answer the thundering shouts 
of its mighty comrade. There was a time when volcanoes 
were as numerous in Kamtchatka as knights around the 
table of King Arthur, and the peninsula trembled to the 
thunder of their shoutings and midnight jollity ; but one 
after another they had been suffocated with the fiery 
streams of their own eloquence, until at last Kloochef- 
skoi was left alone, calling to its old companions through- 
out the silent hours of long winter nights, but hearing no 
response save the faint far-away echoes of its own mighty 
voice. 

I was waked early on the following morning by the 
jubilant music of "Oh, Su-.ra;z-na-a-a, don't ye cry foi 
me," and crawling out of the tent I surprised one of om 
native boatmen in the very act of drumming on a frying- 
pan and yelling out joyously, 

"Litenin' struck de telegraf, 
Killed two thousand niggers ; 
Shut my eyes to hole my breff, 

Su-sdn-na.-a.-a, don't ye cry ! " 

A comical skin-clad native, in the heart of Kamtchatka, 
playing on a frying-pan and singing, " Oh, Susanna," like 
an arctic negro minstrel, was too much for my gravity, 
and I burst into a fit of laughter, which soon brought out 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. IT5 

Dodd. The musician, who had supposed that he was ex- 
ercising his vocal organs unheard, stopped suddenly, and 
looked sheepishly around, as if conscious that he had been 
making himself ridiculous in some way, but did not know 
exactly how. 

"Why, Andray," said Dodd, u I didn't know you could 
sing in English." 

"I can't, Bahrin," was the reply; "but I can sing a 
little in American" 

Dodd and I went off in another roar of laughter, which 
puzzled poor Andray more and more. 

" Where did you learn ? " Dodd asked. 

" The sailors of a whaling-ship learned it to me when I 
was in Petropavlovski, two years ago ; isn't it a good 
song ? " he said, evidently fearing that there might be 
something improper in the sentiment. 

" It's a capital song," Dodd replied reassuringly; " do 
you know any more American words ? " 

" Oh yes, your honor ! " (proudly) " I know l dam yerize,' 
' by 'm bye tomorry,' ' no savey John,' and * goaty hell,' 
but I don't know what they all mean." 

It was evident that he didn't ! His American educa- 
tion was of limited extent and doubtful utility ; but not 
even Cardinal Mezzofanti himself could have been more 
proud of his forty languages than poor Andray was of 
"dam yerize" and "goaty hell." If ever he reached 
America, the blessed land which he saw in his happier 
dreams, these questionable phrases would be his passports 
to the first society. 

While we had been talking with Andray, Vushine had 



Il6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

built a fire and prepared breakfast, and just as the sun 
peered into the valley we sat down on bear-skins around 
our little candle-box and ate some " selanka," or soul 
soup, upon which Vushine particularly prided himself, and 
drank tumbler after tumbler of steaming tea ; " selanka," 
hard bread and tea, with an occasional duck roasted be- 
fore the fire on a sharp stick, made up our bill of fare while 
camping out. Only in the settlements did we enjoy such 
luxuries as milk, butter, fresh bread, preserved rose-leaves, 
and fish pies. 

Taking our places again in the canoes after breakfast, 
we poled on up the river, shooting occasionally at flying 
ducks and swans, and picking as we passed long branches 
full of wild cherries which drooped low over the water. 
About noon we left the canoes to go around a long bend 
in the river, and started on foot with a native guide for 
Yolofka. The grass in the river bottom and on the plains 
was much higher than our waists, and walking through it was 
very fatiguing exercise ; but we succeeded in reaching the vil- 
lage about one o'clock, long before our canoes came in sight. 

Yolofka, a small Kamtchadal settlement of half a dozen 
houses, is situated among the foot-hills of the great central 
Kamtchatkan range, immediately below the pass which 
bears its name, and on the direct route to Tigil and the 
west coast. It is the head of canoe navigation on the 
Yolofka river, and the starting-point for parties intending 
to cross the mountains. Anticipating difficulty in getting 
horses enough for our use at this small village, the Major 
had sent eight or ten overland from Kloochay, and we 
found them there awaiting our arrival. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. II? 

Nearly the whole afternoon was spent in packing the 
horses and getting ready for a start, and we camped foi 
the night beside a cold mountain spring only a few versts 
away from the village. The weather, hitherto, had been 
clear and warm, but it clouded up during the night, and 
we began the ascent of the mountains Tuesday morning, 
the 19th, in a cold, driving rain-storm from the north-west. 
Trn road, if a wretched footpath ten inches wide can be 
said in any metaphorical sense to be a road, was simply 
execrable. It followed the track of a swollen mountain 
torrent, which had its rise in the melting snows of the 
summit, and tumbled in roaring cascades down a narrow, 
dark, precipitous ravine. The path ran along the edge of 
this stream, first on one side, then on the other, and then 
in the water, around enormous masses of volcanic rock, 
over steep lava slopes, where the water ran like a mill- 
race through dense entangling thicket? of trailing pine, 
into ragged heaps of fallen tree-trunks, and along narrow 
ledges of rock where it would be thought that a mountain 
sheep could hardly pass. I would guarantee, with twenty 
men, to hold that ravine against the combined armies of 
Europe ! ; Our pack-horses rolled down steep banks into 
the stream, tore their loads off against tree trunks, stum- 
bled, cut their legs and fell over broken volcanic rocks, 
took flying leaps across narrow chasms of roaring water, 
and performed feats which would have been utterly be- 
yond the strength and endurance of any but Kamtchatkan 
horses. Finally, in attempting to leap a distance of eight 
or ten feet across the torrent, I was thrown violently from 
the saddle, and my left foot caught firmly, just above the 



tl8 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

instep, in the small iron stirrup. The horse scrambled up 
the other side and started at a frightened gallop up^the 
ravine, dragging my body over the ground by one leg. I 
remember making a desperate effort to protect my head7 
by raising myself upon my elbows, but the horse kicked 
me suddenly in the side, and I knew nothing more until I 
found myself lying upon the ground with my foot still en- 
tangled in the broken stirrup, while the horse galloped 
away up the ravine. The giving way of a single strap 
had saved my skull from being crushed like an eggshell 
against the jagged rocks. I was badly bruised and ver) 
faint and dizzy, but no bones seemed to be broken, and 1 
got up without assistance. Thus far the Major had kept 
his quick temper under strong control ; but this was too 
much, and he hurled the most furious invectives at poor 
Nicolai for leading us over the mountains by such a hor- 
rible pass, and threatened him with the direst punishment 
when we should reach Tigil. It was of no use for Nico- 
lai to urge in self-defence that there was no other pass ; 
it was his business to find another, and not peril men's 
lives by leading them into a God-forsaken ravine like this, 
choked up with land slides, fallen trees, water, lava, and 
masses of volcanic rock ! If anything happened to any 
member of our party in this cursed gorge, the Major 
swore he would shoot Nicolai on the spot ! Pale and 
trembling with fright, the poor guide caught my horse, 
mended my stirrup strap, and started on ahead to show 
that he was not afraid to go where he asked us to follow. 
I believe we must have jumped our horses across that 
mountain torrent fifty times in an ascent of 2,000 feet, to 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. II9 

avoid the locks and land slides which appeared first on 
one side and then on the other. One of our pack-horses 
had given out entirely, and several others were nearly 
disabled, when, late in the afternoon, we finally reached the 
summit of the mountains, 4,000 feet above the sea. Be- 
fore us, half hidden by gray storm-clouds and driving 
mist, lay a great expanse of level table-land, covered to 
a depth of eighteen inches with a soft dense cushion of 
Arctic moss, and holding water like an enormous sponge. 
Not a tree nor a landmark of any kind could be seen — 
nothing but moss and flying scud. A cold piercing wind 
from the north swept chilly storm-clouds across the deso- 
late mountain top, and drove tiny particles of half-frozen 
rain into our faces with blinding, stinging force. Drenched 
to the skin by eight or nine hours' exposure to the storm, 
tired and weak from long climbing, with boots full of icy 
water, and hands numb and stiff from cold, we stopped 
for a moment to rest our horses and decide upon our 
course. Brandy was dealt out freely to all our men in 
the cover of a tin pail, but its stimulating influence was so 
counteracted by cold that it was hardly perceptible. The 
poor Starosta of Yolofka, with dripping clothes, blue lips, 
chattering teeth, and black hair plastered over his white 
cheeks, seemed upon the point of giving out. He caught 
eagerly at the pail cover full of brandy which the Major 
handed to him, but every limb was shaking spasmodically, 
and he spilled most of it in getting it to his mouth. 

Fearing that darkness would overtake us before we 
could reach shelter, we started on toward a deserted, half- 
ruined "yourt," which Nicolai said stood near the west. 



120 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ern edge of this elevated plateau, about eight versts dis« 
tant. Our horses sank at every step to the knee in the 
soft, spongy cushion of wet moss, so that we could travel 
no faster than a slow walk, and the short distance of 
eight versts seemed to be interminable. After four more 
dreary hours, spent in wandering about through gray 
drifting clouds, exposed to a bitter north-west wind, and a 
temperature of just 3 2°, we finally arrived in a half- 
frozen condition at the yourt. ■,' It was a low, empty hut, 
nearly square in shape, built of variously sized logs, and 
banked over with two or three feet of moss and grass- 
grown earth, so as to resemble an outdoor cellar. Half 
of one side had been torn down by storm-besieged travel- 
lers for firewood ; its earthen floor was dank and wet with 
slimy tricklings from its leaky roof; the wind and rain 
drove with a mournful howl down through its chimney.- 
hole ; its door was gone, and it presented altogether a dis- 
mal picture of neglected dilapidation. Nothing daunted, 
Vushine tore down another section of the ruined side to 
make a fire, hung over tea-kettles, and brought our pro- 
vision boxes under such shelter as the miserable hut 
afforded. I never could ascertain where Vushine ob- 
tained the water that night for our tea, as there was no 
available stream within ten miles, and the drippings of 
the roof were thick and discolored with mud. I have 
more than a suspicion, however, that he squeezed it out 
of bunches of moss which he tore up from the soaking 
" toondra." Dodd and I took off our boots, poured 
about a pint of muddy water out of each, dried our feet, 
and as the steam rose in clouds from our wet clothes, 
began to feel quite comfortable. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 121 

Vushine was in high good humor. He had voluntarily 
assumed the whole charge of our drivers during the day, 
had distinguished himself by the most unwearied efforts in 
raising fallen horses, getting them over breakneck places, 
and cheering up the disconsolate Kamtchadals, and he now 
wrung the water out of his shirt, and squeezed his wet 
hair absent-mindedly into a kettle of soup, with a counte- 
nance of such beaming serenity and a laugh of such hearty 
good-nature that it was of no use for anybody to pretend 
to be cross, tired, cold, or hungry. With that sunny face 
irradiating the smoky atmosphere of the ruined "yourt," 
and that laugh ringing joyously in our ears, we made fun 
of our misery and persuaded ourselves that we were hav- 
ing a good time. After a scanty supper of "selanka," 
dried fish, hard bread, and tea, we stretched our tired 
bodies out in the shallowest puddles we could find, cov- 
ered ourselves over with blankets, overcoats, oil-cloths, 
and bear-skins, and succeeded, in spite of our wet clothes 
and wetter beds, in getting to sleep. 
6 



CHAPTER XIII. 

- I awoke about midnight with cold feet and shivering 
limbs. The fire on the wet muddy ground had died away 
to a few smouldering embers, which threw a red glow over 
the black, smoky logs, and sent occasional gleams of flick- 
ering light into the dark recesses of the yourt. The wind 
howled mournfully around the hut, and the rain beat 
with intermittent dashes against the logs and trickled 
through a hundred crevices upon my already water-soaked 
blankets. I raised myself upon one elbow and looked 
around. The hut was deserted, and I was alone. For a 
moment of half -awakened consciousness I could not 
imagine where I was, or how I came in such a strange, 
gloomy situation ; but presently the recollection of the 
previous day's ride came back, and I went to the door to 
see wftat had become of all our party. 1 found that the 
Major and Dodd, with all the Kamtchadals, had pitched 
tents upon the spongy moss outside, and were spending 
the night there, instead of remaining in the " yourt" and 
having their clothes and blankets spoiled by the muddy 
droppings of its leaky roof. The tents were questionable 
improvements ; but I agreed with them in preferring clean 
water to mud, and gathering up my bedding I crawled in 
by the side of Dodd. The wind blew the tent down once 
during the night, and left us exposed for a few moments 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 23 

to the storm ; but it was repitched in defiance of the 
wind, ballasted with logs torn from the sides of the 
"yourt," and we managed to sleep after a fashion until 

orning. 

We were a melancholy-looking party when we emerged 
from the tent at daylight. Dodd looked ruefully at his 
wet blankets, made a comical grimace as he felt of his 
water-soaked clothes, and then declared that 

" The weather was not what he knew it once — 
The nights were terribly damp ; 
And he never was free from the rheumatiz' 
Except when he had the cramp ! " 

In which poetical lament we all heartily sympathized if 
we did not join. 

Our wet, low-spirited horses were saddled at daylight ; 
and as the storm showed signs of a disposition to break 
away, we started again, immediately after breakfast, for 
the western edge of the high table-land which here formed 
the summit of the mountain range. The scenery from 
this point in clear weather must be magnificent, as it 
overlooks the Tigil valley and the Okhotsk Sea on one 
side, and the Pacific Ocean, the valleys of the Yolofka 
and the Kamtchatka, and the grand peaks of Soovailitch 
and Kloochefskoi on the other. We caught occasional 
glimpses, through openings in the mist, of the Yolofka 
River, thousands of feet below, and the smoke-plumed 
head of the distant volcano, floating in a great sea of 
bluish clouds ; but a new detachment of straggling va- 
pors from the Okhotsk Sea came drifting across the 
mountain top, and, breaking furiously in our faces, blotted 



124 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

out everything except the mossy ground, over whic^ 
plodded our tired, dispirited horses. 

It did not seem possible that human beings could live, 
or would care to live, on this desolate plain of moss, 4,000 
feet above the sea, enveloped half the time in drifting 
clouds, and swept by frequent storms of rain and snow. 
But even here the wandering Koraks herd their hardy 
reindeer, set up their smoky tent-poles, and bid contemp- 
tuous defiance to the elements. Three or four times 
during the day we passed heaps of reindeer's antlers, and 
piles of ashes surrounded by large circles of evergreen 
twigs, which marked the sites of Korak tents ; but the 
band of wild nomades which had left these traces had 
long before disappeared, and was now perhaps herding 
its deer on the wind-swept shores of the Arctic Ocean. 

Owing to the dense mist by which we were constantly 
surrounded, we could get no clear ideas as to the forma- 
tion of the mountain range over which we were passing, 
or the extent and nature of this great plain of moss which 
lay so high up among extinct volcanic peaks. I only 
know that just before noon we left the "toondra," as this 
kind of moss steppe is called, and descended gradually 
into a region of the wildest, rockiest character, where all 
vegetation disappeared except a few stunted patches of 
trailing pine. For at least ten miles the ground was 
covered everywhere with loose slab-shaped masses . of 
igneous rock, varying in size from five cubic feet to five 
hundred, and lying one upon another in the greatest dis- 
order. The heavens at some unknown geological period 
seemed to have showered down huge volcanic paving- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 125 

stones, until the earth was covered fifty feet deep with 
their broken fragments. Nearly all of these masses had 
two smooth flat sides, and resembled irregular slices of 
some black Plutonian pudding hardened into stone. I was 
not familiar enough with volcanic phenomena to be able to 
decide in what manner or by what agency the earth had 
been thus overwhelmed with loose rocky slabs; but it 
looked precisely as if great sheets of solidified lava had 
fallen successively from the sky, and had been shattered, 
as they struck the earth, into millions of angular slabs. I 
thought of Scott's description of the place where Bruce 
and the Lord of the Isles landed after leaving the Castle 
of Lorn, as the only one I had ever read which gave me 
an idea of such a scene. 

We drank tea at noon on the west side of this rocky 
wilderness, and before night reached a spot where bushes, 
grass, and berries again made their appearance. We 
camped in a storm of wind and rain, and at daybreak on 
the 21st continued our descent of the western slope of 
the mountains. Early in the forenoon we were inspirited 
by the sight of fresh men and horses which had been sent 
out to meet us from a native village called " Sedonka," 
and exchanging our tired, lame, and disheartened animals 
for these fresh recruits, we pushed rapidly on. The 
weather soon cleared up warm and bright, the trail wound 
around among the rolling foot hills through groves of 
yellow birch and scarlet mountain ash, and as the sun 
gradually dried our water-soaked clothes, and brought a 
pleasant glow of returning circulation to our chilled limbs, 
we forgot the rain and dreary desolation of the mountain 
top and recovered our usual buoyancy of spirit. 



126 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

I have once before, I believe, given the history of a 
bear hunt in which our party participated while crossing 
the Kamtchatka " toondra ; " but as that was a mere skir- 
mish, which did not reflect any great credit upon the indi 
viduals concerned, I am tempted to relate one more beat 
adventure which befell us among the foot hills of the Ti- 
gil mountains. It shall be positively the last. 

Ye who listen with credulity to the stories of hunters, 
and pursue with eagerness the traces of bears ; who ex- 
pect that courage will rise with the emergency, and that 
the deficiencies of bravery will be supplied by the tight- 
ness of the fix, attend to the history of Rasselas, an inex- 
perienced bea'r-slayer. About noon, as we were making 
our way along the edge of a narrow grassy valley, bordered 
by a dense forest of birch, larch, and pine, one of our 
drivers suddenly raised the cry of " medvaid," and pointed 
eagerly down the valley to a large black bear rambling 
carelessly through the long grass in search of blueberries, 
and approaching gradually nearer and nearer to our side 
of the ravine. He evidently had not yet seen us, and a 
party to attack him was soon made up of two Kam- 
tchadals, the Major, and myself, all armed to the teeth 
with rifles, axes, revolvers, and knives. Creeping cau- 
tiously around through the timber, we succeeded in gaining 
unobserved a favorable position at the edge of the woods 
directly in front of his Bruinic majesty, and calmly awaited 
his approach. Intent upon making a meal of blueberries, 
and ei-tirely unconscious of his impending fate, he wad- 
dled slowly and awkwardly up to within fifty yards. The 
Kamtchadals kneeled down, threw forward their long 






TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 127 

heavy rifles, fixed their sharp-pronged rests firmly in the 
ground, crossed themselves devoutly three times, drew a 
long breath, took a deadly and deliberate aim, shut their 
eyes, and fired. The silence was broken by a long fizzle, 
during which the Kamtchadals conscientiously kept then 
eyes shut, and finally a terrific bang announced the ca- 
tastrophe, followed immediately by two more sharp reports 
from the rifles of the Major and myself. As the smoke 
cleared away I looked eagerly to see the brute kicking 
around in the agonies of death ; but what was my amaze- 
ment to find that instead of kicking around in the agonies 
of death, as a beast with any sense of propriety would 
after such a fusillade, the perverse animal was making di- 
rectly for us at a gallop ! Here was a variation intro- 
duced that was not down in the programme ! We had 
made no calculations upon a counter-attack, and the fe- 
rocity of his appearance, as he came tearing through the 
bushes, left no room for doubt as to the seriousness of 
his intentions. I tried to think of some historic precedent 
which would justify me in climbing a tree ; but my mind 
was in a state of such agitation that I could not avail my- 
self of my extensive historical knowledge. "A man may 
know the seven portions of the Koran by heart, but when 
a bear gets after him he will not be able to remember his 
alphabet ! " What we should have done in the last ex- 
tremity will never probably be known. A shot from the 
Major's revolver seemed to alter the bear's original plan 
of operations, and, swerving suddenly to one side, he 
crashed through the bushes ten feet from the muzzles of 
our empty rifles, and disappeared in the forest. A careful 



128 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

examination of the leaves and grass failed to reveal any 
signs of blood, and we were reluctantly forced to the con 
elusion that he escaped unscathed. 

Huntinga bear with a Russian rifle is a very pleasant 
and entirely harmless diversion. The animal has plenty 
of time, after the gun begins to fizzle, to eat a hearty 
dinner of blueberries, run fifteen miles across a range of 
mountains into a neighboring province, and get comfort- 
ably asleep in his hole before the deadly explosion takes 
place ! 

It would have been unsafe for any one to suggest " bear- 
steaks" to the Major or me at any time during the suc- 
ceeding week. 

We camped for the night under the huge spreading 
branches of a gnarled birch-tree, a few versts from the 
scene of our exploit, and early Eriday morning were off 
for " Sedonka." When about fifteen versts from the 
village Dodd suggested a gallop, to try the mettle of our 
horses and warm our blood. As we were both well 
mounted, I challenged him to a steeple-chase as far as 
the settlement. Of all the reckless break-neck riding 
that we ever did in Kamtchatka, this was the worst. The 
horses soon became as excited as their riders, and tore 
through the bushes and leaped over ravines, logs, rocks, 
and swamps with a perfect frenzy. Once I was dragged 
from my saddle by the catching of my rifle against a limb, 
and several times we both narrowly escaped knocking our 
brains out against trees. As we approached the town 
we saw three or four Kamtchadals cutting wood a short 
distance ahead. Dodd gave a terrifying shout like a Sioux 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 29 

war-whoop, put spurs to his horse, and we came upon 
them like a thunderbolt. At the sight of two swarthy 
strangers in blue hunting-shirts, top-boots, and red caps, 
with pistols belted around their waists, and knives dan- 
gling at their girdles, charging down upon them like 
Mamelukes at the battle of the Pyramids, the poor Kam- 
tchadals flung away their axes and fled for their lives to 
the woods. Except when I was dragged off my horse, 
we never once drew rein until our animals stood panting 
and foaming in the village. If you wish to draw a flash 
of excitement from Dodd's eyes, ask him if he remembers 
the steeple-chase to " Sedonka." 

That night we floated down the Tigil River to Tigil, 
where we arrived just at dark, having accomplished in» 
sixteen days a journey of eleven hundred and thirty 
versts. 

My recollections of Tigil are somewhat vague and 

indefinite. I remember that I was impressed with the 

inordinate quantities of champagne, cherry cordial, white 

rum, and "vodka'' which its Russian inhabitants were 

capable of drinking, and that Tigil was a somewhat less 

ugly village than the generality of Kamtchatkan towns, 

but nothing more. Next to Petropavlovski, however, it 

is the most important settlement in the peninsula, and is 

the trading centre of the whole west coast. A Russian 

supply steamer and an American trading vessel touch at 

the mouth of the Tigil river every summer, and leave large 

quantities of rye flour, tea, sugar, cloth, copper kettles, 

tobacco, and strong Russian "vodka," for distribution 

through the peninsula. The Bragans, VorrebeorTs, and 
6* 



13© TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

two or thiee other trading firms make it headquarters, and 
it is the winter rendezvous of many of the northern tribes 
of Chookchees and Koraks. As we should pass no other 
trading post until we reached the settlement of Gee-zhe-ga, 
at the head of the Okhotsk Sea, we determined to remain 
a few days at Tigil to rest and refit. 

We were now about to enter upon what we feared would 
prove the most difficult part of our journey — both on 
account of the nature of the country and the lateness of 
the season. Only seven more Kamtchadal towns lay be- 
tween us and the steppes of the wandering Koraks, and 
we had not yet been able to think of any plan of crossing 
these inhospitable wastes before the winter's snows should 
make them passable on reindeer sledges. It is difficult 
for one who has had no experience of northern life to 
get from a mere verbal description a clear idea of a Sibe- 
rian moss steppe, or to appreciate fully the nature and 
extent of the obstacles which it presents to summer tra- 
vel. It is by no means easy to cross, even in winter, 
when it is frozen and covered with snow ; but in summer 
it becomes practically impassable. For three or four 
hundred square miles the eternally frozen ground is cov- 
ered to a depth of two feet with a dense luxurious growth 
of soft, spongy Arctic moss, saturated with water, and 
sprinkled here and there with little hillocks of stunted 
blueberry bushes and clusters of Labrador tea. It never 
dries up, never becomes hard enough to afford stable 
footing. From June to September it is a great, soft, quak- 
ing cushion of wet moss. The foot may sink in it to the 
knee, but as soon as the pressure is removed it lises again 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



131 



with spongy elasticity, and no trace is left of the step. 
Walking over it is precisely like walking over an enor 
mous wet sponge. The causes which produce this extra- 
ordinary, and apparently abnormal, growth of moss ard 
those which exercise the most powerful influence over the 
development of vegetation everywhere, — viz., heat, light, 
and moisture, — and these agencies, in a northern climate, 
are so combined and intensified during the summer 
months as to stimulate some kinds of vegetation into 
almost tropical luxuriance. The earth thaws out in spring 
to an average depth of perhaps two feet, and below that 
point there is a thick, impenetrable layer of solid frost. 
The water produced by the melting of the winter's snows 
k s prevented by this stratum of frozen ground from sink- 
ing any farther into the earth, and has no escape except 
by slow evaporation. It therefore saturates the cushion 
of moss on the surface, and, aided by the almost perpe- 
tual sunlight of June and July, excites it to a rapid and 
wonderfully luxuriant growth. 

It will readily be seen that travel in summer, over a 
great steppe covered with soft elastic moss, and soaking 
with water, is a very difficult if not absolutely impractica- 
ble undertaking. A horse sinks to his knees in the spongy 
surface at every step, and soon becomes exhausted by the 
severe exertion which such walking necessitates. We had 
had an example of such travel upon the summit of the Yo- 
lof ka pass, and it was not strange that we should look for- 
ward with considerable anxiety to crossing the great moss 
steppes of the Koraks in the northern part of the penin- 
sula. It would have been wiser, perhaps, for us to have 



13* TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

waited patiently at Tigil until the establishment of winter 
travel upon dog sledges ; but the Major feared that the 
chief engineer of the enterprise might have landed a party 
of men in the dangerous region around Behring's Straits, 
and he was anxious to get where he could find out some- 
thing about it as soon as possible. He determined, there- 
fore, to push on at all hazards to the frontier of the Korak 
steppes, and then cross them on horses, if possible. 

A whale-boat was purchased at Tigil, and forwarded with 
a native crew to Lesnoi, so that in case we failed to get 
over the Korak steppes we might cross the head of the 
Okhotsk Sea to Gee-zhe-ga by water before the setting in 
of winter. Provisions, trading goods, and fur clothes of 
all sorts were purchased and packed away in skin boxes 
and every preparation made which our previous experi 
ence could suggest for rough life and bad weather. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

On Wednesday, September 27th, we again took the field, 
with two Cossacks, a Korak interpreter, eight or ten men, 
and fourteen horses. A little snow fell on the day pre- 
vious to our departure, but it did not materially affect the 
road, and only served as a warning to us that winter was 
at hand, and we could not expect much more pleasant 
weather. We made our way as rapidly as possible along 
the coast of the Okhotsk Sea, partly on the beach under 
the cliffs, and partly over low wooded hills and valleys, ex- 
tending down to the coast from the central mountain 
range. We passed the settlements of " Aminyana," " Wy- 
umpelka," " Hucktana," and " Polan," changing horses 
and men at every village, and finally, on the 3d of October, 
reached Lesnoi — the last Kamtchadal settlement in the 
peninsula. Lesnoi was situated, as nearly as we could 
ascertain, in lat. 59°2o', long. i6o°2$ r , about a hundred 
and fifty versts south of the Korak steppes, and nearly two 
hundred miles in an air line from the settlement of Gee- 
zhe-ga, which for the present was our objective point. 

We had hitherto experienced little difficulty in making 
our way through the peninsula, as we had been especially 
favored by weather, and there had been few natural ob- 
stacles to stop or delay our progress. Now, however, w<? 



134 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

were about to enter a wilderness which was entirely unin. 
habited, and little known even to our Kamtchadal guides. 
North of Lesnoi the great central range of the Kara- 
tchatka mountains broke off abruptly into the Okhotsk 
Sea, in a long line of tremendous precipices, and inter- 
posed a great rugged wall between us and the steppes of 
the wandering Koraks. N > This mountain range was very 
difficult to pass with horses, even in midsummer, and was 
of course infinitely worse now, when the mountain 
streams were swollen by the fall rains into foaming tor- 
rents, and the storms which herald the approach of win- 
ter might be at any moment expected. The Kamtchadals 
at Lesnoi declared positively that it was of no use to at- 
tempt to cross this range until the rivers should freeze 
over and snow enough fall to permit the use of dog 
sledges, and that they were not willing to risk fifteen or 
twenty horses, to say nothing of their own lives, in any 
such adventure. The Major told them, in language more 
expressive than polite, that he didn't believe a word of 
any such yarn ; that the mountains had to be crossed, and 
that go they must and should. They had evidently never 
had to deal before with any such determined, self-willed 
individual as the Major proved to be, and after some con- 
sultation among themselves, they agreed to make the 
attempt with eight unloaded horses, leaving all our bag- 
gage and heavy camp equipage at Lesnoi. This the 
Major at first would not listen to; but after thinking the 
situation over he decided to divide our small force into two 
parties — one to go around the mountains by water with 
the whale-boat and heavy baggage, and one over then 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 135 

with twenty unloaded horses. The road over the moun- 
tains was supposed to lie near the sea-coast, so that tha 
land party would be most of the time within signalling 
distance of the whale-boat, and in case either party met 
with any accident or found its progress stopped by unfore 
seen obstacles the other could come to its assistance 
Near the middle of the mountainous tract, just west of the 
principal ridge, there was said to be a small river called 
the " Samanka," and the mouth of this river was agreed 
upon as a rendezvous for the two parties in case they lost 
sight of each other during storms or foggy weather. The 
Major decided to go with Dodd in the whale-boat, and 
gave me command of the land party, consisting of our 
best Cossack, Vushine, six Kamtchadals, and twenty light 
horses. Flags were made, a code of signals agreed upon, 
the heavy baggage transferred to the whale-boat and a 
large seal-skin canoe, and early on the morning of Octo- 
ber 4th, I bade the Major and Dodd good-by at the beach, 
and they pushed off. We started up our train of horses 
as the boats disappeared around a projecting bluff, and 
cantered away briskly across the valley toward a gap in 
the. mountains, through which we entered the " wilder 
ness." The road for the first ten or fifteen versts was 
very good ; but I was surprised to find that, instead of 
leading us along the sea-shore, it went directly back into 
the mountains away from the sea, and I began to feai 
that our arrangements for co-operation would be of little 
avail. Thinking that the whale-boat would not probably 
get far the first day under oars and without wind, we en- 
camped early in a narrow valley between two parallel 



I36 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ranges of mountains, I tried, by climbing a low moun- 
tain back of our tent, to get a sight of the sea ; but we 
were at least fifteen versts from the coast, and the view 
was limited by an intervening range of rugged peaks, 
many of which reach the altitude of perpetual snow. It 
was rather lonely to camp that night without seeing 
Dodd's cheerful face by the fireside, and I missed more 
than I thought I should the lively sallies, comical stories, 
and good-humored pleasantry which had hitherto bright- 
ened the long weary hours of camp life. If Dodd could 
have read my thoughts that evening, as I sat in solitary 
majesty by the fireside, he would have been satisfied that 
his society was not unappreciated, nor his absence unfelt. 
Vushine took especial pains with the preparation of my 
supper, and did the best he could, poor fellow, to enliven 
the solitary meal with stories and funny reminiscences of 
Kamtchatkan travel ; but the simple venison cutlets had 
lost somehow their usual savor, and the Russian jokes 
and stories I could not understand. After supper I lay 
down upon my bear-skins in the tent, and fell asleep 
watching the round moon rise over a ragged volcanic 
peak east of the valley. 

On the second day we travelled through a narrow 
tortuous valley among the mountains, over spongy swamps 
of moss, and across deep narrow creeks, until we reached 
a ruined subterranean hut nearly half way from Lesnoi to 
the Samanka River. Here we ate a lunch of dried fish 
and hard bread, and started again up the valley in a heavy 
rain-storm, surrounded on all sides by rocks, snow-capped 
mountains, and extinct volcanic peaks. The road moraen 



i 



TENT LIFE JN SIBERIA. 13) 

tarily grew worse. The valley narrowed gradually to a 
wild rocky canon, a hundred and fifty feet in depth, at 
the bottom of which ran a swollen mountain torrent, 
foaming around sharp black rocks, and falling over ledges 
of lava in magnificent cascades. Along the black pre- 
cipitous sides of this " Devil's Pass " there did not seem 
to be footing for a chamois ; but our guide said that he 
had been through it many times before, and dismounting 
from his horse he cautiously led the way along a narrow 
rocky ledge in the face of the cliff which I had not before 
noticed. Over this we carefully made our way, now 
descending nearly to the water's edge, and then rising again 
until the roaring stream was fifty feet below, and we could 
drop stones from our outstretched arms directly into the 
boiling, foaming waters. Presuming too much upon the 
sagacity of a sure-footed horse, I carelessly attempted the 
passage of the ravine without dismounting, and came near 
paying the penalty of my rashness by a violent death. 
About halfway through, where the trail was only eight' or 
ten feet above the bed of the torrent, the ledge, or a por- 
tion of it, gave way under my horse's feet, and we went 
down together in a struggling mass upon the rocks in the 
channel of the stream. I had taken the precaution to 
disengage my feet from the treacherous iron stirrups, and 
as we fell I threw myself toward the face of the cliff so as 
to avoid being crushed by my horse. The fall was not 
a very long one, and I came down uppermost, but nanow- 
ly escaped having my head broken by my animal's hoofs 
as he struggled to regain his feet. lie was somewhat cut 
and bruised, but not seriously hurt, and tightening the 



!$8 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

saddle-girth I waded along through the water, leading him 
after me until I was able to regain the path. Then 
cli nbing into the saddle again, with dripping clothes and 
somewhat shaken nerves, I rode on. 

Just before dark we reached a point where further pro- 
gress in that direction seemed to be absolutely cut off by 
a range of high mountains which ran directly across the 
valley. It was the central ridge of the Samanka moun- 
tains. I looked around with a glance of inquiring sur- 
prise at the guide, who pointed directly over the range, 
and said that there lay our road. A forest of birch ex- 
tended about half way up the mountain side, and was 
succeeded by low evergreen bushes, trailing pine, and 
finally by bare black rocks rising high over all, where not 
even the hardy reindeer moss could find soil enough to 
bury its roots. I no longer wondered at the positive 
declaration of the Kamtchadals, that with loaded horses it 
would be impossible to cross, and began even to doubt 
whether it could be done with light horses. It looked 
very dubious to me, accustomed as I was to rough climb- 
ing and mountain roads. I decided to camp at once 
where we were, and obtain as much rest as possible, so 
that we and our horses would be fresh for the hard day's 
work which evidently lay before us. Night closed in early 
and gloomily, the rain still falling in torrents, so that 
we had no opportunity of drying our wet clothes. I 
longed for a drink of brandy to warm my chilled blood, 
but my pocket flask had been forgotten in the Hurry ol 
our departure from Lesnoi, and I was obliged to content 
myself with the milder stimulus of hot tea. My bedding 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 39 

having been wrapped up in an oil-cloth blanket, wag 
fortunately diy, and crawling feet first, wet as I was, into 
my bear-skin bag, and covering up warmly with heavy 
blankets, I slept in comparative comfort. 

, Vushine waked me early in the morning with the an- 
nouncement that it was snowing. I rose hastily and putting 
aside the canvas of the tent looked out. That which 
I most dreaded had happened. A driving snow-storm 
was sweeping down the valley, and Nature had assumed 
suddenly the stern aspect and white pitiless garb of win- 
ter. Snow had already fallen to a depth of three inchei 
in the valley, and on the mountains, of course, it would be 
deep, soft, and drifted. I hesitated for a moment about 
attempting to cross the rugged range in such weather : 
but my orders were imperative to go on at least to 
the Samanka River, and a failure to do so might de- 
feat the object of the whole expedition. Previous ex- 
perience convinced me that the Major would not let a 
storm interfere with the execution of his plans ; and if 
he should succeed in reaching the Samanka River and I 
should not, I would never recover from the mortification 
of the failure, nor be able to convince him that Anglo- 
Saxon blood was as good as Slavonic. I reluctantly 
gave the order therefore to break camp, and as soon as 
the horses could be collected and saddled we started for 
the base of the mountain range. Hardly had we as- 
cended two hundred feet out of the shelter of the valley 
before we were met by a hurricane of wind from the north- 
east, which swept blinding, suffocating clouds of snow 
down the slope into our faces until earth and sky seemed 



140 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

mingled and lost in a great white whirling mist. The 
ascent soon became so steep and rocky that we could 
no longer ride our horses up it. We therefore dis- 
mounted, and wading laboriously through deep soft drifts, 
and climbing painfully over sharp jagged rocks, which cut 
open ou; seal- skin boots, we dragged our horses slowly 
upward. We had ascended wearily in this way perhaps a 
thousand feet, when I became so exhausted that I was com- 
pelled to lie down. The snow in many places was drifted 
as high as my waist, and my horse refused to take a step 
until he was absolutely dragged to it. After a rest of a 
few moments we pushed on, and after another hour of hard 
work we succeeded in gaining what seemed to be the 
crest of the mountain, perhaps 2,000 feet above the sea. 
Here the fury of the wind was almost irresistible. Dense 
clouds of driving snow hid everything from sight at a dis- 
tance of a few steps, and we seemed to be standing on a 
fragment of a wrecked world enveloped in a whirling 
tempest of stinging snow-flakes. Now and then a black 
volcanic crag, inaccessible as the peak of the Matterhorn, 
would loom out in the white mist far above our heads, as 
if suspended in mid-air, giving a startling momentary 
wildness to the scene ; then it would disappear again in 
flying snow, and leave us staring blindly into vacancy. 
A long fringe of icicles hung round the visor of my cap, 
and my clothes, drenched with the heavy rain of the pre- 
vious day, froze into a stiff crackling armor of ice upon my 
body. Blinded by the snow, with benumbed limbs and 
clattering teeth, I mounted my horse and let him go where 
he would, only entreating the guide to hurry and get 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 141 

down somewhere off from this exposed position. He 
tried in vain to compel his horse to face the storm. 
Neither shouts nor blows could compel him to turn round, 
and he was obliged finally to ride along the crest of the 
mountain to the eastward. We went down into a com- 
paratively sheltered valley, up again upon another ridge 
higher than the first, around the side of a conical peak 
where the wind blew with great force, down into another 
deep ravine and up still another ridge, until I lost en- 
tirely the direction of our route and the points of the com- 
pass, and had not the slightest idea where we were going. 
I only knew that we were half frozen and in a perfect 
wilderness of mountains. 

I had noticed several times within half an hour that our 
guide was holding frequent and anxious consultations with 
the other Kamtchadals about our road, and that he seemed 
to be confused and in doubt as to the direction in which 
we ought to go. (He now came to me with a gloomy face, 
and confessed that we were lost. I could not blame the 
poor fellow for losing the road in such a storm, but I tcld 
him to go on in what he believed to be the direction of 
the Samanka River, and if we succeeded in finding some- 
where a sheltered valley we would camp and wait for 
better weather. I wished to caution him also against rid- 
ing accidentally over the edges of precipices in the blind- 
ing snow, but I could not speak Russian enough to make 
myself understood. 

We wandered on aimlessly for two hours, over ridges, 
up peaks, and down into shallow valleys, getting deeper 
and deeper apparently into the heart of the mountains 



I42 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

but finding no shelter from the storm. It became evident 
that something must be done, or we should all freeze tc 
death. I finally called the guide, told him I would take 
the lead myself, and, opening my little pocket compass, 
showed him the direction of the sea-coast. In that direc- 
tion I determined to go until we should come out some- 
where. He looked in stupid wonder for a moment at the 
little brass box with its trembling needle, and then cried 
out despairingly, " Oh, Bahrin ! " " How does the come- 
pass know anything about these proclatye mountains ? the 
come-pdss never has been over this road before. I've 
travelled here all my life, and, God forgive me, I don't 
know where the sea is ! " Hungry, anxious, and half-frozen 
as I was, I could not help smiling at our guide's idea of 
an inexperienced compass which had never travelled in 
Kamtchatka, and could not therefore know anything about 
the road. I assured him confidently that the " come-pdss" 
was " shipka masteer," or a great expert at finding the 
sea in a storm ; but he shook his head mournfully, as if he 
had little faith in its abilities, and refused to go in the di- 
rection which I indicated. Finding it impossible to make 
my horse face the wind, I dismounted, and, compass in 
hand, led him away in the direction of the sea, followed 
by Vushine, who, with an enormous bear-skin wrapped 
around his head, looked like some wild animal. The 
guide, seeing that we were determined to trust in the com 
pass, finally concluded to go with us. Our progress was 
necessarily very slow, as the snow was deep, our limbs 
chilled and stiffened by their icy covering and a hurricane 
of wind blowing in our faces. About the middle of the 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA 143 

afternoon, however, we came suddenly out upon the very 
brink of a storm-swept precipice, a hundred and fifty feet 
in depth, against the base of which the sea was hurling 
tremendous green breakers with a roar that drowned the 
rushing noise of the wind. I had never imagined so wild 
and lonely a scene. Behind and around us lay a wilder- 
ness of white, desolate peaks, crowded together under a 
gray, pitiless sky, with here and there a patch of trailing 
pine, or a black pinnacle of trap-rock, to intensify by 
contrast the ghastly whiteness and desolation of the weird 
snowy mountains. In front, but far below, was the troub- 
led sea, rolling mysteriously out of a gray mist of snow- 
flakes, breaking in thick sheets of clotted froth against the 
black ciiff, and making long reverberations, and hollow, 
gurgling noises in the subterranean caverns which it had 
hollowed out. Snow, water, and mountains, and in the 
foreground a little group of ice-covered men and shaggy 
horses, staring at the sea from the summit of a mighty 
cliff! It was a simple picture, but it was full of cheerless, 
mournful suggestions. Our guide, after looking eagerly 
up and down the gloomy precipitous coast in search of 
some familiar landmark, finally turned to me with a brighter 
face, and asked to see that compass. I unscrewed the 
cover and showed him the blue quivering needle still 
pointing to the north. He examined it curiously, but 
with evident respect for its mysterious powers, and 
at last said that it was truly " shipka masteer," and 
wanted to know if it always pointed toward the sea 1 
I tried to explain to him its nature and use, but I 
could rot make him understand, and he walked away 



144 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

firmly believing that there was something uncanny and 
supernatural about a little brass box that could point 
out the road to the sea in a country where it had never 
before been ! 

We pushed on to the northward throughout the after- 
noon, keeping as near the coast as possible, wind- 
ing around among the thickly-scattered peaks and 
crossing no less than nine low ridges of the mountain 
range. 

I noticed throughout the day the peculiar phenomenon 
of which I had read in Tyndall's " Glaciers of the Alps" 
— the blue light which seemed to fill every footprint and 
little crevice in the snow. The hole made by a long 
slender stick was fairly luminous with what appeared to 
be deep blue vapor. I never saw this singular phenome- 
non so marked at any other time during nearly three 
years of northern travel. 

About an hour after dark we rode down into a deep, 
lonely valley, which came out, our guide said, upon the 
sea-beach near the mouth of the Samanka River. Here 
no snow had fallen, but it was raining heavily. I thought 
it hardly possible that the Major and Dodd could have 
reached the appointed rendezvous in such a storm ; but I 
directed the men to pitch the tent, while Vushine and 
I rode on to the mouth of the river to ascertain whether 
the whale-boat had arrived or not. It was too dark to see 
anything distinctly, but we found no traces of any human 
beings having ever been there, and returned disappointed 
to camp. We were never more glad to get under a tent, 
eat supper, and crawl into our bear-skin sleeping-bags, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 45 

than after that exhausting day's work. Our clothes had 
been either wet or frozen for nearly forty-eight hours, and 
we had been fourteen hours on foot and in the saddle, 
without warm food or rest 

7 



CHAPTER XV. 

Early on Saturday morning we moved on to the 
mouth of the valley, pitched our tent in a position to com- 
mand a view of the approaches to the Samanka River, 
ballasted its edges with stones to keep the wind from 
blowing it down, and prepared to wait two days, accord- 
ing to orders, for the whaleboat. The storm still con- 
tinued, and the heavy sea, which dashed sullenly all day 
against the black rocks under our tent, convinced me that 
nothing could be expected from the other party. I only 
hoped that they had succeeded in getting safely landed 
somewhere before the storm began. Caught by a gale 
under the frowning wall of rock which stretched for miles 
along the coast, the whaleboat, I knew, must either swamp 
with all on board, or be dashed to pieces against the clifls. 
In either case not a soul could escape to tell the story. 

That night Vushine astonished and almost disheartened 
me with the news that we were eating the last of our pro- 
visions. There was no more meat, and the hard bread 
which remained was only a handful of water-soaked 
crumbs. He and all the Kamtchadals, confidently ex- 
pecting to meet the whaleboat at the Samanka River, had 
taken only three days' food. He had said nothing about 
it until the last moment, hoping that the whaleboat would 
arrive or something turn up ; but it could no longer be 






i 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 147 

concealed. We were three days' journey from any set- 
tlement, and without food. How we were to get back to 
Lesnoi I did not know, as the mountains were probably 
impassable now, on account of the snow which had fallen 
since we crossed, and the weather did not permit us to 
indulge a hope that the whaleboat would ever come. 
Much as we dreaded it, there was nothing to be done but 
to attempt another passage of the mountain range, and 
that without a moment's delay. I had been ordered to 
wait for the whaleboat two days ; but circumstances, I 
thought, justified a disobedience of orders, and I directed 
the Kamtchadals to be ready to start for Lesnoi early the 
next morning. Then, writing a note to the Major, and 
enclosing it in a tin can, to be left on the site of our camp, 
I crawled into my fur bag to sleep and get strength for 
another struggle with the mountains. 

The following morning was cold and stormy, and the 
snow was still falling in the mountains, and heavy rain in 
the valley. We broke camp at daylight, saddled our 
horses, distributed what little baggage we had among 
them, as equally as possible, and made every preparation 
for deep snow and hard climbing. 

Our guide, after a short consultation with his comrades, 
now came to me and proposed that we abandon our plan 
of crossing the mountains as wholly impracticable, and 
try instead to make our way along the narrow strip of 
beach which the ebbing tide would leave bare at the foot 
of the cliffs. This plan, he contended, was no more dan- 
gerous than attempting to cross the mountains, and was 
much more certain of success, as there were only a few 



148 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

points where at low water a horse could not pass vith 
dry fest. It was not more than thirty miles to a ra- 
vine on the south side of the mountain range, through 
which we could leave the beach and regain our old 
trail at a point within one hard day's ride of Lesnoi. 
The only danger was in being caught by high water 
before we could reach this ravine, and even then we 
might save ourselves by climbing up on the rocks, 
and abandoning our horses to their fate. It would 
be no worse for them than starving and freezing to 
death in the mountains. Divested of its verbal plausi- 
bility, his plan was nothing more nor less than a grand 
thirty-mile race with a high tide along a narrow beach, 
from which all escape was cut off by precipitous cliffs one 
and two hundred feet in height. If we reached the ravine 
in time, all would be well ; but if not, our beach would be 
covered ten feet deep with water, and our horses, if not 
ourselves, would be swept away like corks. There was 
a recklessness and dash about this proposal which made 
it very attractive when compared with wading laboriously 
through snow-drifts, in frozen clothes, without anything to 
eat, and I gladly agreed to it, and credited our guide with 
more sense and spirit than I had ever before seen ex 
hibited by a Kamtchadal. The tide was now only begin 
ning to ebb, and we had three or four hours to spare be 
fore it would be low enough to start. This time the 
Kamtchadals improved by catching one of the dogs which 
had accompanied us from Lesnoi, killing him in a cold- 
blooded way with their long knives, and offering his lean 
body as a sacrifice to the Evil Spirit, in whose jurisdictioR 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 49 

these infernal mountains were supposed to be. ; The poos 
animal was cut open, his entrails taken out and thrown 
to the four corners of the earth, and his body suspended 
by the hind legs from the top of a long pole set perpen- 
dicularly in the ground. The Evil Spirit's wrath, how- 
ever, seemed implacable, for it stormed worse after the 
performance of these propitiatory rites than it did before. 
This did not weaken at all the faith of the Kamtchadals in 
the efficacy of their atonement. If the storm did not 
abate, it was only because an unbelieving American with 
a diabolical brass box called a " come.-pdss'' had insisted 
upon crossing the mountains in defiance of the "genius 
loci" and all his tempestuous warnings. One dead dog 
was no compensation at all for such a sacrilegious viola- 
tion of the Evil Spirit's clearly expressed wishes! The 
sacrifice, however, seemed to relieve the natives' anxiety 
about their own safety • and much as I pitied the poor 
dog thus remorselessly murdered, I was glad to see the 
manifest improvement which it worked in the spirits of 
my superstitious comrades. 

About ten o'clock, as nearly as I could estimate the 
time without a watch, our guide examined the beach and 
said we must be off ; we would have between four and 
five hours to reach the ravine. We mounted in hot haste, 
and set out at a swinging gallop along the beach, over- 
shadowed by tremendous black cliffs on one side, and 
sprinkled with salt spray from the breakers on the other. 
Great masses of green, slimy sea- weed, shells, water- 
soaked drift-wood, and thousands of medusae, which had 
be a n thrown up by the storm, lay strewn in piles along 



£50 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA, 

the beach ; but we dashed through and over them at a mad 
gallop, never drawing rein for an instant except to pick 
our way between enormous masses of rock, which in some 
places had caved away from the summit of the cliff and 
blocked up the beach with gray barnacle-encrusted frag- 
ments as large as freight-cars. 

; We had got over the first eighteen miles in splendid style, 
when Vushine, who was riding in advance, stopped suddenly, 
with an abruptness which nearly threw him over his horse's 
head, and raised the familiar cry of "medvaide! med- 
vaide ! dva." Bears they certainly seemed to be, making 
their way along the beach a quarter of a mile or so ahead ; 
but how bears came in that desperate situation, where 
they must inevitably be drowned in the course of two or 
three hours, we could not conjecture. It made little dif- 
ference to us, however, for the bears were there and we 
must pass. It was a clear case of breakfast for one party 
or the other. There could be no dodging or getting 
around, for the cliffs and the sea left us a narrow road. I 
slipped a fresh cartridge into my rifle and a dozen more 
into my pocket ; Vushine dropped a couple of balls into 
his double-barrelled fowling-piece, and we crept forward 
behind the rocks to get a shot at them, if possible, before 
we should be seen. We were almost within rifle range 
when Vushine suddenly straightened up with a loud laugh, 
and cried out, "loode" — "they are people." Coming 
out from behind the rocks, I saw clearly that they were. 
But how came people there ? Two natives, dressed in fin 
coats and pants, approached us with violent gesticula- 
tions, shouting to us in Russian not to shoot, and holding 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. I^I 

up something white, like a flag of truce. As soon as 
they came near enough one of them handed me a wet, 
dirty piece of paper, with a low bow, and I recognized 
him as a Kamtchadal from Lesnoi. They were messengers 
from the Major ! Thanking God in my heart that the other 
party was safe, I tore open the note and read hastily : — 

"Sea Shore, 15 versts from Lesnoi, October 4th. Driven ashore 
here by the storm. Hurry back as fast as possible. 

"S. Abaza." 

The Kamtchadal messengers had left Lesnoi only one 
day behind us, but had been detained by the storm and 
bad roads, and had only reached on the previous night 
our second camp. Finding it impossible to cross the 
mountains on account of the snow, they had abandoned 
their horses, and were trying to reach the Samanka River 
on foot by way of the sea-beach. They did not expect to 
do it in one tide, but intended to take refuge on high 
rocks during the flood, and resume their journey as soon 
as the beach should be left bare by the receding water. 
There was no time for any more explanations. The 
tide was running in rapidly, and we must make twelve 
miles in a little over an hour, or lose our horses. We 
mounted the tired, wet Kamtchadals on two of our spare 
animals, and were off again at a gallop. The situation 
grew more and more exciting as we approached the 
ravine. At the end of every projecting bluff the water 
was higher and higher, and in several places it had already 
touched witn foam and spray the foot of the cliffs. In 
twenty minutes more the beach would be impassable 



152 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Our horses held out nobly, and the ravine was only a 
short distance ahead — only one more projecting liluff in- 
tervened. Against this the sea was already beginning to 
break, but we galloped past through several feet of water, 
and in five minutes drew rein at the mouth of the ravine. 
It had been a hard ride, but we had won the race with a 
clear ten minutes to spare, and were now on the south 
side of the snowy mountain range, less than sixty miles 
from Lesnoi. Had it not been for our guide's good sense 
and boldness we would still have been floundering through 
the snow, and losing our way among the bewildering 
peaks, ten miles south of the Samanka River. The ravine 
up which our road lay was badly choked with massive 
rocks, patches of trailing pine, and dense thickets of 
alder, and it cost us two hours more hard work to cut a 
trail through it with axes. 

Before dark, however, we had reached the site of our sec- 
ond day's camp, and about midnight we arrived at the ruined 
"yourt" where we had eaten lunch five days before. Ex- 
hausted by fourteen hours' riding without rest or food, we 
could go no farther. I had hoped to get something to eat 
from the Kamtchadal messengers from Lesnoi, but was dis- 
appointed to find that their provisions had been exhausted 
the previous day. Vushine scraped a small handful of 
dirty crumbs out of our empty bread-bag, fried them in a 
little blubber, which I suppose he had brought to grease 
his gun, and offered them to me ; but, hungry as I was, I 
could not eat the dark, greasy mass, and he divided it by 
mouthfuls among the Kamtchadals. 

The second day's ride without food was a severe trial of 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 53 

my strength, and I began to be tormented by a severe 
gnawing, burning pain in my stomach. I tried to quiet it 
by eating seeds from the cones of trailing pine and drink- 
ing large quantities of water ; but this afforded no relief, 
and I became so faint toward evening that I could not sit 
in my saddle. 

About two hours after dark we heard the howling of 
dogs from Lesnoi, and in twenty minutes rode into the 
settlement, dashed up to the little log-house of the Sta- 
rosta, and burst in upon the Major and Dodd as they sat 
at supper. Our long ride was over. 

Thus ended our unsuccessful expedition to the Samanka 
Mountains — the hardest journey I ever experienced in 
Kamtchatka. 

Two days afterward, the anxiety and suffering which 
the Major had endured in a five days' camp on the sea- 
beach during the storm, brought on a severe attack of 
rheumatic fever, and all thoughts of further progress 
were for the present abandoned. Nearly all the horses in 
the village were more or less disabled, our Samanka 
mountain guide was blind from inflammatory erysipelas, 
brought on by exposure to five days of storm, and half my 
party unfit for duty. Under such circumstances, another 
attempt to cross the mountains before winter was impos- 
sible. Dodd and the Cossack Meroneff were sent back 
to Tigil after a physician and a new supply of provisions, 
while Vushine and I remained at Lesnoi to take care of 
die Major. 

7* 



CHAPTER XVI. 

After our unsuccessful attempt to pass the Samanka 
Mountains, there was nothing for us to do but wait pa- 
tiently at Lesnoi until the rivers should freeze over, and 
snow fall to a depth which would enable us to continue 
our journey to Gee-zhe-ga on dog-sledges. It was a 
long, wearisome delay, and I felt for the first time, in its 
full force, the sensation of exile from home, country, and 
civilization. The Major continued very ill, and would 
show the anxiety which he had felt about the success of 
our expedition by talking deliriously for hours of crossing 
the mountains, starting for Geezhega in the whaleboat, 
and giving incoherent orders to Vushine, Dodd, and my- 
self, about horses, dog-sledges, canoes, and provisions. 
The idea of getting to Geezhega before winter filled his 
mind, to the exclusion of everything else. His sickness 
made the time previous to Dodd's return seem very long 
and lonesome, as I had absolutely nothing to do except 
to sit in a little log-room, with opaque fish-skin windows, 
and pore over Shakespeare and my Bible, until I almost 
learned them by heart. In pleasant weather I would 
sling my rifle across my back and spend whole days in 
roaming over the mountains in pursuit of reindeer and 
foxes ; but I rarely met with much success. One deer 
and a few Arctic ptarmigan were my only trophies. At 
night I would sit on the transverse section of a log in oui 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 55 

little kitchen, light a rude Kamtchadal lamp, made with a 
fragment of moss and a tin-cup full of seal oil, and listen 
for hours to the songs and guitar-playing of the Kamtcha 
dais, and to the wild stories of perilous mountain adven- 
ture which they delighted to relate. I learned during 
these Kamtchatkan Nights' Entertainments many inter- 
esting particulars of Kamtchadal life, customs, and pecu- 
liarities, of which I had before known nothing ; and, as I 
shall have no occasion hereafter to speak of this curious, 
little-known people, I may as well give here what account 
I can of their language, music, amusements, superstitions, 
and mode of life. 

The people themselves I have already described as a 
quiet, inoffensive, hospitable tribe of semi-barbarians, re- 
markable only for honesty, general amiability, and comi- 
cal reverence for legally-constituted authority. Such an 
idea as rebellion or resistance to oppression is wholly for- 
eign to the Kamtchadal character now, whatever it may 
have been in previous ages of independence. They will 
suffer and endure any amount of abuse and ill-treatment, 
without any apparent desire for revenge, and with the 
greatest good-nature and elasticity of spirit. They are as 
faithful and forgiving as a dog. If you treat them well, 
your slightest wish will be their law ; and they will do 
their best in their rude way to show their appreciation of 
kindness, by anticipating and meeting even your unex- 
pressed wants. During our stay at Lesnoi the Major 
chanced one day to inquire for some milk. The Starosta 
did aot tell him that there was not a cow in the village, 
but said that he would try and get some. A man was 



156 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

instantly despatched on horseback to the neighborii g set- 
tlement of Kinkill, and before night he returned with a 
champagne bottle under his arm, and the Major had milk 
that evening in his tea. From this time until we started 
for Geezhega — more than a month — a man rode twenty 
miles every day to bring us a bottle of fresh milk. This 
seemed to be done out of pure kindness of heart, without 
any desire or expectation of future reward ; and it is a 
fair example of the manner in which we were generally 
treated by all the Kamtchadals in the peninsula. 

The settled natives of Northern Kamtchatka have gen- 
erally two different residences, in which they live at differ- 
ent seasons of the year. These are respectively called 
the "zimnia" or winter settlement, and the "letova" or 
summer fishing station, and are from one to five miles 
apart. In the former, which is generally situated under 
the shelter of timbered hills, several miles from the sea- 
coast, they reside from September until June. The " le- 
tova" is always built near the mouth of an adjacent river 
or stream, and consists of a few "yourts" or earth-cov- 
ered huts, eight or ten conical "bologans" mounted on 
stilts, and a great number of wooden frames on which fish 
are hung to dry. To this fishing station the inhabitants 
all remove early in June, leaving their winter settlement 
entirely deserted. Even the dogs and the crows abandon 
it for the more attractive surroundings and richer pickings 
of the summer "bologans." Early in July the salmon 
enter the river in immense numbers from the sea, and are 
caught by the natives in gill-nets, baskets, seines, weirs, 
Iraps, and a dozen other ingenious contrivances — cut open, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 15^ 

cleaned and boned by the women, with the greatest skill 
and celerity, and hung in long rows upon horizontal poles 
to dry. A fish, with all the confidence of an inexperienced 
sea life, enters the river as a sailor comes ashore, intending 
to have a good time ; but before he fairly knows what he is 
about, he is caught in a seine, dumped out upon the beach 
with a hundred more equally unsophisticated and equally 
unfortunate sufferers, split open with a big knife, his back- 
bone removed, his head cut off, his internal arrangements 
scooped out, and his mutilated remains hung over a pole 
to simmer in a hot July sun. It is a pity that he cannot 
enjoy the melancholy satisfaction of seeing the skill and 
rapidity with which his body is prepared for a new and 
enlarged sphere of usefulness ! He is no longer a fish. 
In this second stage of passive unconscious existence he 
assumes a new name, and is called a " Yookala." 

It is astonishing to see in what enormous quantities 
and to what great distances these fish ascend the Sibe- 
rian rivers. Dozens of small streams which we passed in 
the interior of Kamtchatka, seventy miles from the sea- 
coast, were so choked up with thousands of dying, dead, 
and decayed fish, that we could not use the water for any 
purpose whatever. Even in little mountain brooks, so 
narrow that a child could step across them, we saw sal- 
mon eighteen or twenty inches in length still working 
their way laboriously up stream, in water which was not 
deep enough to cover their bodies. We frequently waded 
in and threw them out by the dozen with our bare hands. 
They change greatly in appearance as they ascend a 
river. When they first come in from the sea their scales 



158 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

are bright and hard, and their flesh fat and richly colored ; 
but as they go higher and higher up stream, their scales 
lose their brilliancy and fall off, their flesh bleaches out 
until it is nearly white, and they become lean, dry, and 
tasteless. For this reason all the fishing stations in 
Kamtchatka are located, if possible, at or near the mouth 
of some river. To the instinct which leads the salmon 
to ascend rivers for the purpose of depositing its spawn, 
is attributable the settlement of all Northeastern Si- 
beria. If it were not for the abundance of fish, the whole 
country would be uninhabited and uninhabitable, except 
by the Reindeer Koraks. As soon as the fishing season 
is over, the Kamtchadals store away their dried "yoo- 
kala" in " bologans," and return to their winter-quarters 
to prepare for the fall catch of sables. For nearly a month 
they spend all their time in the woods and mountains, 
making and setting traps. To make a sable trap, a 
narrow perpendicular slot, fourteen inches by four in 
length and breadth, and five inches in depth, is cut in 
the trunk of a large tree, so that the bottom of the slot 
will be about at the height of a sable's head when he 
stands erect. The stem of another smaller tree is then 
trimmed, one of its ends raised to a height of three feet 
by a forked stick set in the ground, and the other bevelled 
off so as to slip up and down freely in the slot cut for its 
reception. This end is raised to the top of the slot and 
supported there by a simple figure-four catch, leaving a 
nearly square opening of about four inches below for the 
admission of the sable's head. The figure-four is then 
baited and the trap is ready. The sable rises upon hi? 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 59 

hind legs, puts his head into the hole, and the heavy log, 
set free by the dropping of the figure-four, falls and 
crushes the animal's skull, without injuring in the slightest 
degree the valuable parts of his skin. One native fre- 
quently makes and sets as many as a hundred of these 
traps in the fall, and visits them at short intervals 
throughout the winter. Not content, however, with this 
extensive and well-organized system of trapping sables, 
the natives hunt them upon snow-shoes with trained dogs, 
drive them into holes which they surround with nets, and 
then, forcing them out with fire or axe, they kill them 
with clubs. 

The number of sables caught in the Kamtchatkan 
peninsula annually varies from six to nine thousand, all 
of which are exported to Russia and distributed from 
there over Northern Europe. A large proportion of the 
whole number of Russian sables in the European market 
are .caught by the natives of Kamtchatka and transported 
by American merchants to Moscow. W. H. Bordman, 
of Boston, and an American house in China — known, I 
believe, as Russell & Co. — practically control the fur 
trade of Kamtchatka and the Okhotsk sea-coast. The 
price paid to the Kamtchadals for an average sable 
skin in 1867 was nominally fifteen roubles silver, or 
about $11 gold; but payment was made in tea, sugar, 
tobacco, and sundry other articles of merchandise, at the 
trader's own valuation, so that the natives actually realized 
only a little more than half the nominal price. Nearly 
all the inhabitants of Central Kamtchatka are engaged 
directly or ir.directly during the winter in the sable trade- 



l6o TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

and many of them have acquired by it a comfortable 
independence. 

Fishing and sable hunting, therefore, are the serious 
occupations of the Kamtchadals throughout the year ; bu> 
as these are indications of the nature of the country rather 
than of th a characteristics of its inhabitants, they give 
only an imperfect idea of the distinctive peculiarities of 
Kamtchadals and Kamtchadal life. The language, music, 
amusements, and superstitions of a people are much more 
valuable as illustrations of their real character than are 
their regular occupations. 

The Kamtchadal language is to me one of the most 
curious of all the wild tongues of Asia ; not on account 
of its construction, but simply from the strange, uncouth 
sounds with which it abounds, and its strangling, gurgling 
articulation. When rapidly spoken, it always reminded me 
of water running out of a narrow-mouthed jug ! A Rus- 
sian traveller in Kamtchatka has said that " the Kamtcha- 
dal language is spoken half in the mouth and half in the 
throat;" but it might be more accurately described as 
spoken half in the throat and half in the stomach. It 
has more guttural sounds than any other Asiatic language 
which I have ever heard, and differs considerably in this 
respect from the dialects of the Chookchees and Koraks. 
It is what comparative philologists call an agglutinative 
language, and seems to be made up of permanent un- 
changeable roots with variable prefixes. It has, so far as 
I could ascertain, no terminal inflections, and its gram- 
mar seemed to be simple and easily learned. Most of 
the Kamtchadals throughout the northern part of the 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. l6i 

peninsula speak, in addition to their own language, Rus- 
sian and Korak, so that, in their way, they are quite 
accomplished linguists. 

It has always seemed to me that the songs of a people, 
and especially of a people who have composed them 
themselves, and not adopted them from others, are indi- 
cative to a very great degree of their character ; whether, 
as some author supposed, the songs have a reflex influ- 
ence on the character, or whether they exist simply as its 
exponents, the result is the same, viz., a greater or less 
correspondence between the two^ In none of the Sibe- 
rian tribes is this more marked than in the Kamtchadals. 
They have evidently never been a warlike, combative 
people. • They have no songs celebrating the heroic deeds 
of their ancestors, or their exploits in the chase or in bat- 
tle, as have many tribes of our North American Indians. 
Their ballads are all of a melancholy, imaginative char- 
acter, inspired apparently by grief, love, or domestic feel- 
ing, rather than by the ruder passions of pride, anger, and 
revenge. Their music all has a wild, strange sound to a 
foreign ear, but it conveys to the mind in some way a 
sense of sorrow, and vague, unavailing regret for some- 
thing which has forever past away, like the emotion 
excited by a funeral dirge over the grave of a dear friend. 
/As Ossian says of the music of Carryl, "it is like the 
memory of joys that are past — sweet, yet mournful to 
the soul." I remember particularly a song called the 
Penjinski, sung one night by the natives at Lesnoi, which 
was, without exception, the sweetest, and yet the most 
inexpressibly mournful combination of notes that I had 



1 62 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ever heard. It was a wail of a lost soul despairing, yet 
pleading for mercy. I tried in vain to get a translation 
of the words. Whether it was the relation of some bloody 
and disastrous encounter with their fiercer northern neigh- 
bors, or the lament over the slain body of some dear son, 
brother, or husband, I could not learn; but the music 
alone will bring the tears near one's eyes, and has an inde- 
scribable effect upon the singers, whose excitable feelings 
it sometimes works up almost to the pitch of frenzy. 
The dancing tunes of the Kamtchadals are of course 
entirely different in character, being generally very lively, 
energetic staccato passages, repeated many times in suc- 
cession, without variation. Nearly all the natives accom- 
pany themselves upon a three-cornered guitar called a 
" Cellalika," with two strings, and some of them play 
quite well upon rude home-made violins. All are passion- 
ately fond of music of any kind. 

The only other amusements in which they indulge are 
dancing, playing foot-ball on the snow in winter, and 
racing with dog-teams. 

The winter travel of the Kamtchadals is accomplished 
entirely upon dog-sledges, and in no other pursuit of their 
lives do they spend more time or exhibit their native skill 
and ingenuity to better advantage. They may even be 
said to have made dogs for themselves in the first place, 
for the present Siberian animal is nothing more than a 
half-domesticated arctic wolf, and still retains all his wolf- 
ish instincts and peculiarities. There is probably no 
more hardy, enduring animal in the world. You may 
compel him to sleep out on the snow in a temperature o/ 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 63 

70 below zero, drive him with heavy loads until his feel 
crack open and print the snow with blood, or starve him 
until he eats up his harness ; but his strength and his spirit 
seem alike unconquerable. I have driven a team of nine 
dogs more than a hundred mil as in a day and a night, and 
have frequently worked them hard for forty-eight hours 
without being able to give them a particle of food. In 
general they are fed once a day, their allowance being a 
single dried fish, weighing perhaps a pound and a half or 
two pounds. This is given to them at night, so that they 
begin another day's work with empty stomachs. 

The sledge to which they are harnessed is about ten 
feet in length and two in width, made with seasoned birch 
timber, and combines to a surprising degree the two most 
desirable qualities of strength and lightness. It is simply 
a skeleton frame work, fastened together with lashings of 
dried seal-skin, and mounted on broad, curved runners. 
No iron whatever is used in its construction, and it does 
not weigh more than twenty pounds ; yet it will sustain a 
load of four or five hundred pounds, and endure the se- 
verest shocks of rough mountain travel. The number of 
dogs harnessed to this sledge varies from seven to fifteen, 
according to the nature of the country to be traversed 
and the weight of the load. Under favorable circumstances 
eleven dogs will make from forty to fifty miles a day with 
a man and a load of four hundred pounds. They are 
harnessed to the sledge in successive couples by a long 
central thong of seal-skin, to which each individual dog 
is attached by a collar and a short trace. They are guided 
and controlled entirely by the voice xnd by a lead dog 



164 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

who is especially trained for the purpose. The driver 
carries no whip* but has instead a thick stick about four 
feet in length and two inches in diameter, called an 
" oerstel." This is armed at one end with a long iron 
spike, and is used to check the speed of the sledge in de- 
scending hills, and to stop the dogs when they leave the 
road, as they frequently do in pi rsuit of reindeer and foxes. 
The spiked end is then thrust down in front of one of the 
knees or uprights of the runners, and drags in that position 
through the snow, the upper end being firmly held by the 
driver. It is a powerful lever, and when skilfully used 
brakes up a sledge very promptly and effectively. 

The art of driving a dog-team is one of the most de- 
ceptive in the world. The traveller at first sight imagines 
that driving a dog-sledge is just as easy as driving a street 
car, and at the very first favorable opportunity he tries it. 
After being run away with within the first ten minutes, 
capsized into a snow-drift, and his sledge dragged bottom 
upward a quarter of a mile from the road, the rash exper- 
imenter begins to suspect that the task is not quite so 
easy as he had supposed, and in less than one day he is 
generally convinced by hard experience that a dog-driver, 
like a poet, is born, not made. 

The dress of the Kamtchadals in winter and summer is 
made for the most part of skins. Their winter costume 
consists of seal-skin boots called " torbassa," worn over 
heavy reindeer-skin stockings and coming to the knee ; 
fur pants with the hair inside ; a fox-skin hood with a long 
fringe of wolverine hair, ornamented with the animal's 
ears ; and a heavy kookhlanka, or double fur over-shirt, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 65 

covering the body to the knees. This is made of the very 
thickest and softest reindeer-skin of various colors, orna- 
mented around the bottom with silk embroidery, trimmed 
at the sleeves and neck with glossy beaver, and furnished 
vrith a square flap under the chin, to be held up over the 
nose, and a hood behind the neck, to be drawn over the 
head in bad weather. In such a costume as this the 
Kamtchadals defy for weeks at a time the severest cold, 
and sleep out on the snow safely and comfortably in 
temperatures of twenty, thirty, and even forty degrees be- 
low zero, Fahr. 

Most of our time during our long detention at Lesnoi 
was occupied in the preparation of such costumes for our 
own use, in making covered dog-sledges to protect our- 
selves from winter storms, sewing bear-skins into capacious 
sleeping bags, and getting ready generally for a hard 
winter's campaign. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Aeout the 20th of October a Russian physician arrived 
from Tigil, and proceeded to reduce the little strength 
which the Major had by steaming, bleeding, and blistering 
him into a mere shadow of his former robust proportions. 
The fever, however, abated under this energetic treatment, 
and he began gradually to amend. Some time during the 
same week, Dodd and Meroneff returned from Tigil with 
a new supply of tea, sugar, rum, tobacco, and hard bread, 
and we began collecting dogs from the neighboring settle- 
ments of Kin-Kill and Polan for another trip across the 
Samanka Mountains. Snow had fallen everywhere to a 
depth of two feet, the weather had turned clear and cold, 
and there was nothing except the Major's illness to detain 
us longer at Lesnoi. On the 28th he declared himself 
able to travel, and we packed up for a start. On Novem- 
ber 1 st we put on our heavy fur-clothes, which turned us 
into wild animals of most ferocious appearance, bade goo«L 
by to all the hospitable people of Lesnoi, and set out 
with a train of sixteen sledges, eighteen men, two hundred 
dogs, and forty days' provisions, for the territory of the 
Wandering Koraks. We determined to reach Geezhega 
this time, or, as the newspapers say, perish in the 
attempt. 

Late in the afternoon of November 3d, just as the long 

I 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. l6? 

northern twilight was fading into the peculiar steely blue 
of an arctic night, our dogs toiled slowly up the last 
summit of the Samanka Mountains, and we looked down 
from a height of more than two thousand feet upon the 
dreary expanse of snow which stretched away from the 
base of the mountains at our feet to the far horizon. It 
was the land of the Wandering Koraks. A cold breeze 
from the sea swept across the mountain-top, soughing 
mournfully through the pines as it passed, and intensify- 
ing the loneliness and silence of the white wintry land- 
scape. The faint pale light of the vanishing sun still 
lingered upon the higher peaks ; but the gloomy ravines 
below us, shaggy with forests of larch and dense thickets 
of trailing pine, were already gathering the shadows and 
indistinctness of night. At the foot of the mountains 
stood the first encampment of Koraks. As we rested 
our dogs a few moments upon the summit, before com- 
mencing our descent, we tried to discern through the 
gathering gloom the black tents which we imagined stood 
somewhere beneath our feet ; but nothing save the dark 
patches of trailing pine broke the dead white of the level 
steppe. The encampment was hidden by a projecting 
shoulder of the mountain. 

The rising moon was just throwing into dark, bold 
relief the shaggy outlines of the peaks on our right, as 
we roused up our dogs and plunged into the throat of a 
dark ravine which led downward to the steppe. The 
deceptive shadows of night, and the masses of rock which 
choked up the narrow defile, made the descent extremely 
dangerous ; and it required- all the skill of our practised 



1 68 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

drivers to avoid accident. Clouds of snow flew from the 
spiked poles with which they vainly tried to arrest our 
downward rush ; cries and warning shouts from those in 
advance, multiplied by the mountain echoes, excited our 
dogs to still greater speed, until we seemed, as the rocks 
and trees flew past, to be in the jaws of a falling ava- 
lanche, which was carrying us with breathless rapidity 
down the dark canon to certain ruin. Gradually, how- 
ever, our speed slackened, and we came out into the 
moonlight on the hard, wind-packed snow of the open 
steppe. Half an hour's brisk travel brought us into the 
supposed vicinity of the Korak encampment, but we saw 
as yet no signs of either reindeer or tents. The dis- 
turbed, torn-up condition of the snow usually apprises the 
traveller of his approach to the yourts of the Koraks, as 
the reindeer belonging to the band range all over the 
country within a radius of several miles, and paw up the 
snow in search of the moss which constitutes their food. 
Failing to find any such indications, we were discussing 
the probability of our having been misdirected, when 
suddenly our leading dogs pricked up their sharp earsj 
snuffed eagerly at the wind, and with short, excited yelps, 
made off at a dashing gallop toward a low hill which 1% 
almost at right angles with our previous course. The 
drivers endeavored in vain to check the speed of the 
excited dogs; their wolfish instincts were aroused, and 
all discipline was forgotten as the fresh scent came dowr 
upon the wind from the herd of reindeer beyond. A 
moment brought us to the brow of the hill, and before 
,m ; n the clear moonlight, stood the conical tents of the 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 69 

Koraks, surrounded by at least four thousand reindeer, 
whose branching antlers looked like a perfect forest of 
dry limbs. The dogs all gave voice simultaneously, like 
a pack of fox-hounds in view of the game, and dashed 
tumultuously down the hill, regardless of the shouts of 
their masters, and the menacing cries of three or fou, 
dark forms which rose suddenly up from the snow betweer 
them and the frightened deer. Above the tumult I 
could hear Dodd's voice, hurling imprecations in Russian 
at his yelping dogs, which, in spite of his most strenuous 
efforts, were dragging him and his capsized sledge across 
the steppe. The vast body of deer wavered a moment 
and then broke into a wild stampede, with drivers, Kurak 
sentinels, and two hundred dogs in full pursuit. 

Not desirous of becoming involved in the melee, I 
sprang from my sledge and watched the confused crowd 
as it swept with shout, bark, and halloo, across the plain 
The whole encampment, which had seemed in its quiet 
loneliness to be deserted, was now startled into instant 
activity. Dark forms issued suddenly from the tents, and 
grasping the long spears which stood upright in the snow 
by the door- way, joined in the chase, shouting and hurling 
lassos of walrus hide at the dogs, with the hope of stop- 
ping their pursuit. The clattering of thousands of antlers 
dashed together in the confusion of flight, the hurried 
beat of countless hoofs upon the hard snow, the deep, 
hoarse barks of the startled deer, and the unintelligible 
cries of the Koraks, as they tried to rally their panic- 
stricken herd, created a Pandemonium of discordant 
sounds which could be heard far and wide through the 



I70 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA, 

still, frosty atmosphere of night. It resembled a midnignt 
attack of Camanches upon a hostile camp, rather than the 
peaceful arrival of three or four American travellt xs ; and 
I listened with astonishment to the wild uproar )f alarm 
which we had unintentionally aroused. 

The tumult grew fainter and fainter as it sv ~pt away 
ir.lo the distance, and the dogs, exhausting the unnatural 
strength which the excitement had temporarily gi/en them, 
yielded reluctantly to the control of their drivers and 
lurried toward the tents. Dodd's dogs, panting with the 
violence of their exertions, limped sullenly back, casting 
longing glances occasionally in the direction of the deer, 
as if they more than half repented the weakness which had 
led them to abandon the chase. 

"Why didn't you stop them?" I inquired of Dodd, 
laughingly. " A driver of your experience ought to have 
better control of his team than that." 

" Stop them ! " he exclaimed with an aggrieved air. 
" I'd like to see you stop them, with a raw-hide lasso round 
your neck, and a big Korak hauling like a steam windlass 
on the other end of it! It's all very well to cry 'stop 
'em ; ' but when the barbarians haul you off the rear end 
of your sledge as if you were a wild animal, what course 
would your sublime wisdom suggest ? I believe I've got 
the mark of a lasso round my neck now," and he felt 
cautiously about his ears for the impression of a seal skin 
thong. 

As soon as the deer had been gathered together again 
and a guard placed over them, the Koraks crowded curi- 
ously around the visitors who had entered so unceremoni 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 171 

ous'ly their quiet camp, and inquired through iVieroneff, 
our interpreter, who we were and what we wanted. A 
wild, picturesque group they made, as the moonlight 
streamed white and clear into their swarthy faces, and 
glittered upon the metallic ornaments about their persons 
and the polished blades of their long spears. Their high 
cheek-bones, bold, alert eyes, and straight, coal-black hair, 
suggested an intimate relationship with our own Indians ; 
but the resemblance went no further. Most of their faces 
wore an expression of bold, frank honesty, which is not a 
characteristic of our western aborigines, and which we in- 
stinctively accepted as a sufficient guarantee of their friend- 
liness and good faith. Contrary to our preconceived 
idea of northern savages, they were athletic, able-bodied 
men, fully up to the average height of Americans. Heavy 
" kookhlankas," or hunting-shirts of spotted deer-skin, 
confined about the waist with a belt, and fringed round 
the bottom with the long black hair of the wolverine, 
covered their bodies from the neck to the knee, orna- 
mented here and there with strings of small colored beads, 
tassels of scarlet leather, and bits of polished metal. Fur 
pantaloons, long boots of seal-skin coming up to the 
thigh, and wolf-skin hoods, with the ears of the animal 
standing erect on each side of the head, completed 
the costume which, notwithstanding its bizarre effect, had 
yet a certain picturesque adaptation to the equally 
strange feature© of the moonlight scene. Leaving our 
Cossack Meroneff, seconded by the Major, to explain our 
business and wants, Dodd and I strolled away to make a 
critical inspection of the encampment. It consisted of 



172 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

four large conical tents, built apparently of a framework of 
poles and covered with loose reindeer skins, confined in theii 
places by long thongs of seal or walrus hide, which were 
stretched tightly over them from the apex of the cone to 
the ground. They seemed at first sight to be illy calcu- 
lated to withstand the storms which in winter sweep down 
across this steppe from the Arctic Ocean ; but subsequent 
experience proved that the severest gales cannot tear 
them from their fastenings. Neatly constructed sledges 
of various shapes and sizes were scattered here and there 
upon the snow, and two or three hundred pack-saddles 
for the reindeer were piled up in a symmetrical wall near 
the largest tent. Finishing our examination, and feeling 
somewhat bored by the society of fifteen or twenty 
Koraks who had constituted themselves a sort of super- 
visory committee to watch our motions, we returned tc 
the spot where the representatives of civilization and bar 
barism were conducting their negotiations. They had 
apparently come to an amicable understanding ; for, upon 
our approach, a tall native with shaven head stepped out 
from the throng, and leading the way to the largest tent, 
lifted a curtain of skin and revealed a dark hole about 
two feet and a half in diameter, which he motioned to us 
to enter. 

Now, if there was any branch of Vushine's Siberian edu- 
cation upon which he especially prided himself, it was his 
proficiency in crawling into small holes. Perseveiing 
practice had given him a flexibility of back and a peculiar 
sinuosity of movement which we might admire but could 
not imitate ; and although the distinction was not perhap3 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 73 

an altogether desirable one, he was invariably selected to 
explore all the dark holes and underground passages 
(miscalled doors) which came in our way. This seemed 
to be one of the most peculiar of the many different styles 
of entrance which we had observed ; but Vushine, assum- 
ing ai an axiom, that no part of his body could be greater 
than the (w)hole, dropped into a horizontal position, and 
requesting Dodd to give his feet an initial shove, crawled 
cautiously in. A few seconds of breathless silence suc- 
ceeded his disappearance, when supposing that all must 
be right, I put my head into the hole and crawled warily 
after him. The darkness was profound ; but, guided by 
Vushine' s breathing, I was making very fair progress, when 
suddenly a savage snarl and a startling yell came out of 
the gloom in front, followed instantly by the most substan- 
tial part of Vushine' s body, which struck me with the force 
of a battering ram on the top of the head, and caused me, 
with the liveliest apprehensions of ambuscade and massa- 
cre, to back precipitately out. Vushine, with the awk- 
ward retrograde movements of a disabled crab, speedily 
followed. 

" What in the name of Chort is the matter ? " demanded 
Dodd in Russian, as he extricated Vushine' s head from 
the folds of the skin curtain in which it had become en- 
veloped. "You back out as if Shaitan and all his imps 
were after you !" — "You don't suppose," responded Vu- 
shine, with excited gestures, " that I'm going to stay in 
that hole and be eaten up by Korak dogs? If I was 
foolish enough to go in, I've got discretion enough to 
know when to come out. I don't believe the hole leads 



174 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

anywhere, anyhow," he added apologetically; "arid if a 
all full of dogs." With a quick perception of Vushine's 
difficulties and a grin of amusement at his discomfiture, 
our Korak guide entered the hole, drove out the dogs, 
and lifting up an inner curtain, allowed the red light of 
the fire to stream through. Crawling on hands and knees 
a distance of twelve or fifteen feet through the low door- 
way, we entered the large open circle in the interior of 
the tent. A crackling fire of resinous pine boughs burned 
brightly upon the ground in the centre, illuminating redly 
the framework of black, glossy poles, and flickering fitfully 
over the dingy skins of the roof and the swarthy tattooed 
faces of the women who squatted around. A large cop 
per kettle, filled with some mixture of questionable odor 
and appearance, hung over the blaze, and furnished occu- 
pation to a couple of skinny, bare-armed women, who with 
the same sticks were alternately stirring its contents, pok- 
ing up the fire, and knocking over the head two or three 
ill-conditioned but inquisitive dogs. The smoke, which 
rose lazily from the fire, hung in a blue, clearly-defined 
cloud about five feet from the ground, dividing the atmos- 
phere of the tent into a lower stratum of comparatively 
clear air, and an upper cloud region where smoke, vapors, 
and ill odois contended for supremacy. 

The location of the little pure air which the yourt 
afforded made the boyish feat of standing upon one's head 
a very desirable accomplishment ; and as the pungent 
suioke filled my eyes to the exclusion of everything else 
except tears, I suggested to Dodd that he reverse the 
respective positions of his head and feet, and try it — he 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 75 

would escape the smoke and sparks from the fire, and al 
the same time obtain a new and curious optical effect. 
With the sneer of contempt which always met even my 
most valuable suggestions, he replied that I might try my 
own experiments, and throwing himself down at full 
length on the ground, he engaged in the interesting diver- 
sion of making faces at a Korak baby. Vushine's time, as 
soon as his eyes recovered a little from the effects of the 
smoke, was about equally divided between preparations 
for our evening meal, and revengeful blows at the stray 
dogs which ventured in his vicinity; while the Major, who 
was probably the most usefully employed member of the 
party, negotiated for the exclusive possession of a " polog." 
The temperature of a Korak tent in winter seldom ranges 
above 20 or 25 Fahr., and as constant exposure to such 
a degree of cold would be at least very disagreeable, the 
Koraks construct around the inner circumference of the 
tent small, nearly air-tight apartments called " pologs," 
which are separated one from another by skin curtains, 
and combine the advantages of exclusiveness with the 
desirable luxury of greater warmth. These "pologs" are 
about four feet in height, and six or eight feet in width 
and length. They are made of the heaviest furs sewn 
carefully together to exclude the air, and are warmed and 
lighted by a burning fragment of moss floating in a wood- 
en bowl of seal oil/ The law of compensation, however, 
which pervades all Nature, makes itself felt even in the 
pologs of a Korak yourt, and for the greater degiee of 
warmth is exacted the penalty of a closer, smokier atmos- 
phere. The flaming wick of the lamp, which floats like a 



176 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tiny burning ship in a miniature lake of rancid grease 
absorbs the vital air of the polog, and returns it in the 
shape of carbonic acid gas, oily smoke, and sickening odors. 
In defiance, however, of all the known laws of hygiene, 
this vitiated atmosphere seems to be healthy ; or, to state 
the case negatively, there is no evidence to prove its un- 
healthiness. The Korak women, who spend almost the 
whole of their time in these pologs, live generally to an 
advanced age, and except a noticeable tendency to angu- 
lar outlines and skinniness, there is nothing to distinguish 
them physically from the old women of other countries. 
It was not without what I supposed to be a well-founded 
apprehension of suffocation, that I slept for the first time 
in a Korak yourt ; but my uneasiness proved to be entire- 
ly groundless, and gradually wore away. 

With a view to escape from the crowd of Koraks who 
squatted around us on the earthen floor, and whose 
watchful curiosity soon became irksome, Dodd and I 
lifted up the fur curtain of the polog which the Major's 
diplomacy had secured, and crawled in to await the ad- 
vent of supper. The inquisitive Koraks, unable to find 
100m in the narrow polog for the whole of their bodies, 
lay down to the number of nine on the outside, and 
poking their ugly, half-shaven heads under the curtain, 
resumed their silent supervision. The appearance in a row 
of nine disembodied heads, whose staring eyes rolled with 
synchronous motion from side to side as we moved, was 
so ludicrous that we involuntarily burst into laughtei A 
responsive smile instantly appeared upon each of the nine 
swarthy faces, whose simultaneous concurrence in the 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 7^f 

expression of every emotion suggested the idea of some 
huge monster with nine heads and but one consciousness. 
Acting upon Dodd's suggestion that we try and smoke 
them out, I took my brier-wood pipe from my pocket and 
proceeded :o light it with one of those peculiar snapping 
lucifers which were among our most cherished relics of 
civilization. As the match, with a miniature fusillade 
of sharp reports, burst suddenly into flame, the nine 
startled heads instantly disappeared, and from beyond the 
curtain we could hear a chorus of long-drawn " tye-e-e's" 
from the astonished natives, followed by a perfect Babel 
of animated comments upon this diabolical method of 
producing fire. Fearful, however, of losing some other 
equally striking manifestation of the white men's super- 
natural power, the heads soon returned, re-enforced by sev- 
eral others which the report of the wonderful occurrence 
had attracted. The fabled watchfulness of the hundred- 
eyed Argus was nothing compared with the scrutiny to 
which we were now subjected. Every wreath of curling 
smoke which rose from our lips was watched by the star- 
ing eyes as intently as if it were some deadly vapor from 
the bottomless pit, which would shortly burst into report 
and flame. A loud and vigorous sneeze from Dodd was 
the signal for a second panic-stricken withdrawal of the 
row of heads, and another comparison of respective expe- 
riences outside the curtain. It was laughable enough ; 
but, tired of being stared at and anxious for something to 
eat, we crawled out of our polog and watched with unas 
sumed interest the preparation of supper. 

Out of a little pine box which contained our tele 
8* 



I78 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

graphic instruments, Vushine had improvised a rude, leg 
less mess-table, which he was engaged in covering with 
cakes of hard bread, slices of raw bacon, and tumblers 
of steaming tea. These were the luxuries of civilization, 
and beside them on the ground, in a long wooden trough 
and a huge bowl of the same material, were the corre- 
sponding delicacies of barbarism. As to their nature and 
composition we could, of course, give only a wild conjec- 
ture ; but the appetites of weary travellers are not very 
discriminating, and we seated ourselves, like cross-legged 
Turks, on the ground, between the trough and the instru- 
ment-box, determined to prove our appreciation of Korak 
hospitality by eating everything which offered itself. The 
bowl with its strange-looking contents arrested, of course, 
the attention of the observani Dodd, and, poking it 
inquiringly with a long-handled spoon, he turned to 
Vushine, who, as chef-de-cuisine, was supposed to know 
all about it, and demanded : 

" What's this you've got ? " 

" That ? " answered Vushine, promptly, " that's 
'Kasha' " (hasty pudding made of rice)." 

" Kasha ! " exclaimed Dodd, contemptuously. " It 
looks more like the stuff that the children of Israel made 
bricks of. They don't seem to have wanted for straw, 
either," he added, as he fished up several stems of dried 
grass. " What is it, anyhow ? " 

" That," said Vushine again, with a comical assump- 
tion of learning, "is the celebrated 'Jamuk chi a la 
Poosterelsk,' the national dish of the Koraks, made from 
the original recipe of His High Excellency Oollcot 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. fjQ 

Ootkoo Minyegeetkin, Grand Hereditary Tyon and Veve- 
sokee Prevoskhodeetbestro " 

" Hold on ! " exclaimed Dodd, with a deprecating ges- 
ture, "that's enough, I'll eat it;" and taking out a half- 
spoonful of the dark viscid mass, he put it to his lips. 

" Well," said we expectantly, after a moment's pause, 
" what does it taste like ? " 

" Like the mud pies of infancy!" he replied senten- 
tiously. " A little salt, pepper, and butter, and a good 
deal of meat and flour, with a few well-selected vegeta- 
bles, would probably improve it; but it isn't particularly 
bad as it is." 

Upon the strength of this rather equivocal recommen- 
dation I tasted it. Aside from a peculiar earthy flavor, it 
had nothing about it which was either pleasant or dis- 
agreeable. Its qualities were all negative except its grassi- 
ness, which alone gave character and consistency to the 
mass. 

This mixture, known among the Koraks as " manyalla," 
is eaten by all the Siberian tribes as a substitute for bread, 
and is the nearest approximation which native ingenuity 
can make to the staff of life. It is valued, we were told, 
more for its medicinal virtues than for any intrinsic excel- 
lence of taste, and our limited experience fully prepared 
us to believe the statement. [ Its original elements are 
clotted blood, tallow, and half-digested moss taken from 
the stomach of the reindeer, where it is supposed to have 
undergone some essential change which fits it for second- 
hand consumption. These curious and heterogeneous 
ingredients are boiled up together with a few handfuls of 



l8o TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

dried grass to give the mixture consistency, and the dark 
mass is then moulded into small loaves and frozen for 
future use. Our host was evidently desirous of treating 
us with every civility, and, as a mark of especial consider- 
ation, bit off several choice morsels from the large cube 
of venison in his grimy hand, and taking them from his 
mouth, offered them to me. I waived graciously the im- 
plied compliment, and indicated Dodd as the proper 
recipient of such attentions ; but the latter revenged him- 
self by requesting an old woman to bring me some raw 
tallow, which he soberly assured her constituted my only 
food when at home. My indignant denials in English 
were not, of course, understood ; and the woman, delighted 
to find an American whose tastes corresponded so closely 
with her own, brought the tallow. I was a helpless vic- 
tim, and I could only add this last offence to the long 
list of grievances which stood to Dodd's credit, and which 
I hoped some time to settle in full. 

; Supper, in the social economy of the Koraks, is empha- 
tically the meal of the day. Around the kettle of " man- 
yalla," or the trough of reindeer meat, gather the men of 
the band, who during the hours of daylight have been 
absent, and who, between mouthfuls of meat or moss, dis- 
cuss the simple subjects of thought which their isolated 
life affords. We availed ourselves of this opportunity to 
learn something of the tribes who inhabited the country 
to the northward, the reception with which we would pro- 
bably meet, and the mode of travel which we should bo 
compelled to adopt. 



CHAPTFR XVIII. 

i The Wanderi ig Koraks of -vamtchatka, who are divided 
into about forty different bands, roam over the great 
steppes in the northern part of the peninsula, between 
the 58th and the 63d parallels of latitude. Their southern 
limit is the settlement of Tigil, on the west coast, where 
they come annually to trade, and they are rarely found 
north of the village of Penzhina, two hundred miles from 
the head of the Okhotsk Sea. Within these limits they 
wander almost constantly with their great herds of rein- 
deer, and so unsettled and restless are they in their habits, 
that they seldom camp longer than a week in any one 
place. This, however, is not attributable altogether to 
restlessness or love of change. A herd of four or five 
thousand reindeer will in a very few days paw up the 
snow and eat all the moss within a radius of a mile from 
the encampment, and then, of course, the band must 
move to fresh ground. Their nomadic life, therefore, is 
not entirely a choice, but partly a necessity, growing out 
of their dependence upon the reindeer. They must wan- 
der or their deer will starve, and then their own starva- 
tion follows as a natural consequence. Their unsettled 
mode of life probably grew, in the first place, out of the 
domestication of the reindeer, and the necessity which it 
involved of consulting first the reindeer's wants ; but the 



1 82 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

restless, vagabondish habits thus produced have now be- 
come a part of the Korak's very nature, so that he could 
hardly live in any other way, even had he an opportunity 
of so doing. This wandering, isolated, independent ex- 
istence has given to the Koraks all those characteristic 
traits of boldness, impatience of restraint, and perfect 
self-reliance, which distinguish them from the Kamtcha- 
dals and the other settled inhabitants of Siberia. 'Give 
them a small herd of reindeer, and a moss steppe to 
wander over, and they ask nothing more from all the 
world. They are wholly independent of civilization and 
government, and will neither submit to their laws nor re- 
cognize their distinctions. Every man is a law unto him- 
self as long as he owns a dozen reindeer ; and he can 
isolate himself, if he so chooses, from all human kind, and 
ignore all other interests but his own and his reindeer's. 
For the sake of convenience and society they associate 
themselves in bands of six or eight families each ; but 
these bands are held together only by mutual consent, 
and recognize no governing head. They have a leader 
called a Tyon, who is generally the largest deer-owner of 
the band, and he decides all such questions as the loca- 
tion of camps and time of removal from place to place ; 
but he has no other power, and must refer all graver 
questions of individual rights and general obligations to 
the members of the band collectively. They have no 
particular reverence for anything or anybody except the 
evil spirits who bring calamities upon them, and the 
" Shamans or priests, who act as infernal mediators 
between these devils and their victims. Earthly rank 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 83 

they treat with contempt, and the Czar of all the Russias, 
if he entered a Korak tent, would stand upon the sam^ 
level with its owner. We had an amusing instance of 
this soon after we met the first Koraks. The Major had 
become impressed in some way with the idea that in order 
to get what he wanted from these natives he must impress 
them with a proper sense of his power, rank, w T ealth, and 
general importance in the world, and make them feel a 
certain degree of reverence and respect for his orders and 
wishes. He accordingly called one of the oldest and 
most influential members of the band to him one day, and 
proceeded to tell him, through an interpreter, how rich he 
was ; what immense resources, in the way of rewards and 
punishments, he possessed ; what high rank he held ; 
how important a place he filled in Russia, and how be- 
coming it was that an individual of such exalted attributes 
should be treated by poor wandering heathen with filial 
reverence and veneration. The old Korak, squatting 
upon his heels on the ground, listened quietly to the 
enumeration of all our leader's admirable qualities and 
perfections without moving a muscle of his . face ; but 
finally, when the interpreter had finished, he rose slowly, 
walked up to the Major with imperturbable gravity, and 
with the most benignant and patronizing condescension, 
patted him softly on the head ! The Major turned red 
and broke out into a laugh ; but he never tried again to 
overawe a Korak. 

Notwithstanding this democratic independence of the 
Koraks, they are almost invariably hospitable, obliging, 
3.nd kind-hearted ; and we were assured at the first en- 



184 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

campment where we stopped, that we would have no diffi. 
culty in getting the different bands to carry us on deer- 
sledges from one encampment to another until we should 
reach the head of Penzhinsk Gulf. After a long conver- 
sation with the Koraks who crowded around us as we sa> 
by the fire, we finally became tired and sleepy, and with 
favorable impressions upon the whole of this new and 
strange people, we crawled into our little polog to sleep. 
A voice in another part of the yourt was singing a low, 
melancholy air in a minor key as I closed my eyes, and 
the sad, oft-repeated refrain, so different from ordinary 
music, invested with peculiar loneliness and strangeness 
my first night in a Korak tent. 

To be awakened in the morning by a paroxysm of 
coughing, caused by the thick, acrid smoke of a low-spirited 
fire — to crawl out of a skin bed-room six feet square into 
the yet denser and smokier atmosphere of the tent — to eat 
a breakfast of dried fish, frozen tallow, and venison out of 
a dirty wooden trough, with an ill-conditioned dog standing 
at each elbow and disputing one's right to every mouthful, 
is to enjoy an experience which only Korak life can afford, 
and which only Korak insensibility can long endure.) A 
very sanguine temperament may find in its novelty some 
compensation for its discomfort, but the novelty rarely 
outlasts the second day, while the discomfort seems to in- 
crease in a direct ratio with the length of the experience. 
Philosophers may assert that a rightly constituted mind 
will rise superior to all outward circumstances ; but two 
weeks in a Korak tent would do more to disabuse their 
minds of such an erroneous impression than any amount 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 185 

of logical argument. I do not profess myself to be pre- 
ternaturally cheerful, and the dismal aspect of things when 
I crawled out of my fur sleeping-bag, on the morning after 
our arrival at the first encampment, made me feel anything 
but amiable. The first beams of daylight were just strug- 
gling in misty blue lines through the smoky atmosphere, 
of the tent. The recently kindled fire would not burn 
but would smoke ; the air was cold and cheerless ; two 
babies were crying in a neighboring polog ; the breakfast 
was not ready, everybody was cross, and rather than break 
the harmonious impression of general misery, I became 
cross also. Three or four cups of hot tea, however, which 
were soon forthcoming, exerted their usual inspiriting in- 
fluence, and we began gradually to take a more cheerful 
view of the situation. Summoning the "Tyon," and 
quickening his dull apprehension with a preliminary pipe 
of strong Circassian tobacco, we succeeded in making ar- 
rangements for. our transportation to the next Korak en- 
campment in the north, a distance of about forty miles. 
Orders were at once given for the capture of twenty rein- 
deer and the preparation of sledges. Snatching hurriedly 
a few bites of hard bread and bacon by way of breakfast, 
I donned fur hood and mittens, and crawled out through 
the low doorway to see how twenty trained deer were to 
be separated from a herd of four thousand wild ones. 

Surrounding the tent in every direction were the deei 
belonging to the band, some pawing up the snow with 
their sharp hoofs in search of moss, others clashing theii 
antlers together and barking hoarsely in fight, or chasing 
one another in a mad gallop over the steppe. Near the 



l86 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tent a dozen men with lassos arranged themselves in twp 
parallel lines, while twenty more, with a thong of seal-skin 
two or three hundred yards in length, encircled a portion 
of the great herd, and with shouts and waving lassos began 
driving it through the narrow gantlet. The deer strove 
with frightened bounds to escape from the gradually con- 
tracting circle, but the seal-skin cord, held at short dis- 
tances by shouting natives, invariably turned them back, 
and they streamed in a struggling, leaping throng through 
the narrow opening between the lines of lassoers. Ever 
and anon a long cord uncoiled itself in air, and a sliding 
noose fell over the antlers of some unlucky deer whose 
slit ears marked him as trained, but whose tremendous 
leaps and frantic efforts to escape suggested very grave 
doubts as to the extent of the training. To prevent the 
interference and knocking together of the deer's antlers 
when they should be harnessed in couples, one horn was 
relentlessly chopped off close to the head by a native 
armed with a heavy sword-like knife, leaving a red ghastly 
stump from which the blood trickled in little streams over 
the animal's ears. They were then harnessed to sledges 
in couples, by a collar and trace passing between the fore- 
legs ; lines were affixed to small sharp studs in the head- 
stall, which pricked the right or left side of the head when 
the corresponding rem was jerked, and the equipage was 
ready. 

Bidding good-by to the Lesnoi Kamtchadals, who le- 
turned from here, we muffled ourselves from the biting air 
in our heaviest furs, took seats on our respective sledges, 
and at a laconic " tok" (go) from the " Tyon" we were 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. l8) 

off; the little cluster of tents looking like a group of con- 
ical islands behind us as we swept out upon the limitless 
ocean of the snowy steppe. Noticing that I shivered a 
little in the keen air, my driver pointed away to the north- 
ward, and exclaimed with a pantomimic shrug, " Tam 
shipka Kholodno " — there it's awful cold, We needed no 
to be informed of the fact ; the rapidly sinking thermom 
eter indicated our approach to the regions of perpetual 
frost, and I looked forward with no little apprehension to 
the prospect of sleeping out-doors in the arctic tempera- 
tures of which I had read, but which I had never yet ex- 
perienced. 

I This was my first trial of reindeer travel, and I was 
a little disappointed to find that it did not quite realize the 
expectations which had been excited in my boyish days 
by the pictures of galloping Lapland deer in the old 
geographies. The reindeer were there, but they were not 
the ideal reindeer of early fancy, and I felt a vague sense 
of personal injury and unjustifiable deception at the sub- 
stitution of these awkward, ungainly beasts for the spirited 
and fleet-footed animals of my boyish imagination. Their 
trot was awkward and heavy, they carried their heads 
low, and their panting breaths and gaping mouths were 
constantly suggestive of complete exhaustion, and excited 
pity for their apparently laborious exertions, rather than 
admiration for the speed which they really did exhibit. 
My ideal reindeer would never have demeaned himself 
by running with his mouth wide open. When I learned, 
as I afterward did, that they were compelled to breathe 
through theii mouths, on account of the rapid accumula- 



l88 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tion of frost in their nostrils, it relieved my apprehensions 
of their breaking down, but did not alter my firm con- 
viction that my ideal reindeer was infinitely superior in 
an aesthetic point of view to the real animal. I could 
not but admit, however, the inestimable value of the 
reindeer to his wandering owners. Besides carrying 
them from place to place, he furnishes them with clothes, 
food, and covering for their tents ; his antlers are made 
into rude implements of all sorts ; his sinews are dried and 
pounded into thread, his bones are soaked in seal oil and 
burned for fuel, his entrails are cleaned, filled with tallow, 
and eaten ; his blood, mixed with the contents of his 
stomach, is made into " manyalla ; " his marrow and 
tongue are considered the greatest of delicacies ; the stiff, 
bristly skin of his legs is used to cover snow-shoes ; and 
finally his whole body, sacrificed to the Korak gods, 
brings down upon his owners all the spiritual and temporal 
blessings which they need/} It would be hard to find 
another animal which fills so important a place in the 
life of any body of men, as the reindeer does in the life 
and domestic economy of the Siberian Koraks^ I can- 
not now think of one which furnishes even the four prime 
requisites of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation. 
It is a singular fact, however, that the Siberian natives — • 
the only people, so far as I know, who have ever domesti- 
cated the reindeer, except the Laps — do not use in any 
way the animal's milk. Why so important and desirable 
an article of food should be neglected, when every other 
part of the deer's body is turned to some useful account, 
I cannot imagine. It is certain, however, that no one of 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA 1 89 

the four great wandering tribes of Northeastern Siberia, 
Koraks, Chookchees, Tungoos, and Samootkees, uses ir? 
any way the reindeer's milk. 

By two o'clock in the afternoon it began to grow dark ; 
but we estimated that we had accomplished at least half 
of our day's journey, and halted for a few moments to 
allow our deer to eat. The last half of the distance 
seemed interminable. The moon rose round and bright 
as the shield of Achilles, and lighted up the vast, lonely 
" toondra " with noonday brilliancy ; but its silence and 
desolation, the absence of any dark object upon which the 
fatigued eye could rest, and the apparently boundless 
extent of this Dead Sea of snow, oppressed us with new 
and strange sensations of awe. A dense mist or steam, 
which is an unfailing indication of intense cold, rose 
from the bodies of the reindeer and hung over the road 
long after we had passed. Beards became tangled 
masses of frozen iron wire ; eyelids grew heavy with white 
rims of frost and froze together when we winked ; noses 
assumed a white, waxen appearance with every incautious 
exposure, and only by frequently running beside our 
sledges could we keep any "feeling" in our feet. Im- 
pelled by hunger and cold, we repeated twenty times 
the despairing question, "How much farther is it?" 
and twenty times we received the stereotyped but indefi- 
nite answer of " chaimuk," near, or occasionally the en- 
couraging assurance that we would arrive in a minute. 
Now we knew very well that we should not arrive in a 
minute, nor probably in forty minutes ; but it afforded 
temporary lelief to be told that we would. My frequent 



w 



I go TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

inquiries finally spurred my driver into an attempt to ex- 
press the distance arithmetically, and with evident pride 
in his ability to speak Russian, he assured me that it was 
only "dvaverst," or two versts more. I biightened up 
at once with anticipations of a vvarm fire and an infi- 
nite number of cups of hot tea, and succeeded, by the^ 
imagination of prospective comfort, in forgetting the pres- • 
ent sense of suffering. At the expiration, however, of 
three-quarters of an hour, seeing no indication of the 
promised encampment, I asked once more if it were 
much farther away. One Korak looked around over 
the steppe with a well-assumed air of seeking some 
landmark, and then turning to me with a confident nod, > 
repeated the word "verst" and held up four fingers :-/ 
I sank back upon my sledge in despair. If we had been 
three-quarters of an hour in losing two versts, how long 
would we be in losing versts enough to get back to the 
place from which we started. It was a discouraging 
problem, and after several unsuccessful attempts to solve 
it by the double rule of three backwards, I gave it up. 
For the benefit of the future traveller, I give, however, a 
few native expressions for distances, with their numerical 
equivalents : " Chaimuk" — near, twenty versts ; " Bol- 
shai nyett" — there is no more, fifteen versts ; il Sey chass 
preadem" — we will arrive this minute, means any time 
in the course of the day or night ; and " diloco " — far, is a 
week's journey. By bearing in mind these simple values, 
the traveller will avoid much bitter disappointiner t, and 
may get through without entirely losing faith in human 
veracity. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. I9I 

About six o'clock in the evening, tired, hungry, and 
half-frozen, we caught sight of the sparks and fire-lit smoke 
which arose from the tents of the second encampment, 
and amid a genera-l barking of dogs and hallooing of men 
we stopped among them. Jumping hurriedly from my 
sledge, with no thought but that of getting to a fire, I 
crawled into the first hole which presented itself, with a 
firm belief, founded on the previous night's experience, 
that it must be a door. After groping about some time in 
the dark, crawling over two dead reindeer and a heap of 
dried fish, I was obliged to shout for assistance. Great was 
the astonishment of the proprietor, who came to the 
rescue with a torch, to find a white man and a stranger 
crawling around aimlessly in his fish store-house. He 
relieved his feelings with a ty-e-e-e of amazement, and led 
the way, or rather crawled away, to the interior of the tent, 
where I found the Major endeavoring with a dull Korak 
knife to cut his frozen beard loose from his fur hood and 
open communication with his mouth through a sheet of ice 
and hair. The tea-kettle was soon simmering and spouting 
over a brisk fire, beards were thawed out, noses examined 
for signs of frost-bites, and in half an hour we were seated 
comfortably on the ground around a candle-box, drinking 
tea and discussing the events of the day. 

Just as Vushine was filling up our cups for the third time, 
the skin curtain of the low doorway at our side was lifted 
up, and the most extraordinary figure which I ever beheld 
in Kamtchatka crawled silently in, straightened up to its 
full height of six feet, and stood majestically before us. It 
was an uajly, dark-featured man about thirty year? of age. 



I92 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

( He was cltthed in a scarlet dress-coat with blue facings 
^and brass buttons, with long festoons of gold cord hung 
across the breast, pants of black, greasy deer-skin, and fur 
boots. His hair was closely shaven from the crown of his 
head, leaving a long fringe of lank, uneven locks hanging 
about his ears and forehead. Long strings of small color- 
ed beads depended from his ears, and over one of them he 
had plastered for future use a huge quid of masticated to- 
bacco. About his waist was tied a ragged seal-skin thong, 
which supported a magnificent silver-hilted sword and 
embossed scabbard. His smoky, unmistakably Korak 
face, shaven head, scarlet coat, greasy skin pants, gold 
cord, seal-skin belt, silver-hilted sword, and fur boots, 
made up such a remarkable combination of glaring con- 
trasts that we could do nothing for a moment but stare at 
him in utter amazement. He reminded me of " Talipot, 
the Immortal Potentate of Manacabo, Messenger of the 
Morning, Enlightener of the Sun, Possessor of the Whole 
Earth, and Mighty Monarch of the Brass-handled Sword." 
"Who are you?" suddenly demanded the Major, in 
Russian. A low bow was the only response. " Where m 
the name of Chort did you come from?" Another bow. 
" Where did you get that coat ? Can't you say something ? 

Ay ! MeronerT ! Come and talk to this fellow, I can'l 

make him say anything." Dodd suggested that he might 
be a messenger from the Expedition of Sir John Franklin, 
with late advices from the Pole and the Northwest passage ~ t 
and the silent owner of the sword bowed affirmatively, as if 
this were the true solution of the mystery. " Are you a 
pickled catbag^ ? " suddenly inquired Dodd in Russian. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 1 93 

The Unknown intimated by a very emphatic bow that he 
was. " He don't understand anything ! " said Dodd/.n dis 
gust ; " where's Meroneff? " Meroneff soon made his ap- 
pearance, and began questioning the mysterious visitor in a 
scarlet coat as to his residence, name, and previous histo- 
ry. For the first time he now found a voice. " What 
does he say ? " asked the Major, " what's his name ? " 
" He says his name is Khanalpoogineek." 
"Where did he get that coat and sword? " 
" He says ' the Great White Chief gave it to him for a 
dead reindeer." This was not very satisfactory, and 
Meroneff was instructed to get some more intelligible in- 
formation. Who the " Great White Chief" might be, 
and why he should give a scarlet coat and a silver-hilted 
sword for a dead reindeer, were questions beyond oui 
ability to solve. Finally, Meroneff 's puzzled face cleared 
up, and he told us that the coat and sword had been pre- 
sented to the Unknown by the Emperor, as a reward for 
reindeer given to the starving Russians of Kamtchatka 
during a famine. The Korak was asked if he had re- 
ceived no paper with these gifts, and he immediately left 
the tent, and returned in a moment with a sheet of paper 
tied up carefully with reindeer's sinews between a couple 
of thin boards. This paper explained everything. The 
coat and sword had been given to the present owner's 
father, during the reign of Alexander I., by the Russian 
Governor of Kamtchatka, as a reward for succor afforded 
the Russians in a famine. From the father they had cle^ 
scended to the son, and the latter, proud of his inherited 
distinction, had presented himself to us as soon as he 
9 



194 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

heard of our arrival. He wanted nothing in particulai 
except to show himself, and after examining his sword, 
which was really a magnificent weapon, we gave him a 
few bunches of tobacco and dismissed him. I We had 
hardly expected to find in the interior of Kamtchatka any 
relics of Alexander L, dating back to the time of Napo» 
leon. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Otf the following morning at daybreak we continued 
our journey, and rode until four hours after dark, over a 
boundless level steppe, without a single guiding landmark 
to point the way. I was surprised to see how accurately 
Dur drivers could determine the points of the compass 
and shape their course by simply looking at the snow. 
The heavy north-east winds which prevail in this locality 
throughout the winter sweep the snow into long wave-like 
ridges called " sastroogee," which are always perpendicu- 
lar to the course of the wind, and which almost invariably 
run in a north-west and south-east direction. They are 
sometimes hidden for a few days by freshly-fallen snow ; 
but an experienced Korak can always tell by removing 
the upper layer which way is north, and he travels to 
his destination by night or day in a nearly straight 
line. 

We reached the third encampment about six o'clock, 
and upon entering the largest tent were surprised to find 
it crowded with natives, as if in expectation of some cere- 
mony or entertainment. Inquiry through our interpreter 
elicited the interesting fact that the ceremony of marriage 
was about to be performed for, or rather by, two members 
of the band ; and instead of taking up our quarters, as we 
at first intended, in another less crowded tent, we deter- 



lg6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

mined to remain and see in what manner this lite would 
be solemnized by a wholly uncivilized and barbarous 
people. 

The marriage ceremony of the Koraks is especially re- 
markable for its entire originality, and for the indifference 
which it manifests to the sensibilities of the bridegroom. 
In no other country does there exist such a curious mix- 
ture of sense and absurdity as that which is dignified in the 
social life of the Koraks with the name of marriage ; and 
among no other people, let us charitably hope, is the un- 
fortunate bridegroom subjected to such humiliating indig- 
nities. The contemplation of marriage is, or ought to be, 
a very serious thing to every young man ; but to a Korak 
of average sensibility it must be absolutely appalling. 
No other proof of bravery need ever be exhibited than a 
certificate of marriage (if the Koraks have such docu- 
ments), and the bravery rises into positive heroism when a 
man marries two or three times. ; I once knew a Korak 
in Kamtchatka who had ibur wives, and I felt as much re- 
spect for his heroic bravery as if he had charged with the 
Six Hundred at Balaklava. 

The ceremony, I believe, has never been described; and 
inadequate as a description may be to convey an idea of 
the reality, it will perhaps enable American lovers to 
realize what a calamity they escaped when they were born 
in America and not in Kamtchatka. The young Korak' s 
troubles begin when he first falls in love : this, like 
Achilles' wrath, is "the direful spring of woes unnum. 
bered." If his intentions are serious, he calls upon the 
damsel's father and makes formal proposals for her hand, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. I97 

ascertains the amount of her dower in reindeer, and learns 
her estimated value. He is probably told that he must 
work for his wife two or three years — a rather severe trial 
of any young man's affection. He then seeks an inter 
view with the young lady herself, and performs the agree- 
able or disagreeable duty which corresponds in Korak to 
the civilized custom of " popping the question." We had 
hoped to get some valuable hints from the Koraks as to 
the best method which their experience suggested for the 
successful accomplishment of this delicate task ; but we 
could learn nothing which would be applicable to the 
more artificial relations of civilized society. If the young 
man's sentiments are reciprocated, and he obtains a 
positive promise of marriage, he goes cheerfully to work, 
like Ferdinand in " The Tempest " for Miranda's father, 
and spends two or three years in cutting and drawing 
wood, watching reindeer, making sledges, and contributing 
generally to the interests of his prospective father-in-law. 
At the end of this probationary period comes the grand 
" experimentum crucis," which is to decide his fate and 
prove the success or the uselessness of his long labor. 

At this interesting crisis we had surprised our Korak 
friends in the third encampment. The tent which we had 
entered was an unusually large one, containing twenty- six 
''pologs," arranged in a continuous circle around its inner 
circumference. The open space in the centre around 
the fire was crowded with the dusky faces and half-shaven 
heads of the Korak spectators, whose attention seemed 
about equally divided between sundry kettles and troughs 
of " manyalla," boiled venison, marrow, frozen tallow, and 



I98 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

similar delicacies, and the discussion of some controverted 
point of marriage etiquette. Owing to my ignorance of 
the language, I was not able to enter thoroughly into the 
merits of the disputed question ; but it seemed to be abh 
argued on both sides. Our sudden entrance seemed to 
create a temporary diversion from the legitimate business 
of the evening. The tattooed women and shaven-headed 
men stared in open-mouthed astonishment at the pale- 
faced guests who had come unbidden to the marriage- 
feast, having on no wedding garments. Our faces were 
undeniably dirty, our blue hunting-shirts and buck-skin 
pants bore the marks of two months' rough travel, in 
numerous rips, tears, and tatters, which were only partially 
masked by a thick covering of reindeer hair from our fui 
" kookhlankas." Our general appearance, in fact, sug- 
gested a more intimate acquaintance with dirty " yourts," 
mountain thickets, and Siberian storms, than with the 
civilizing influences of soap, water, razors, and needles. We 
bore the curious scrutiny of the assemblage, however, 
with the indifference of men who were used to it, and 
sipped our hot tea while waiting for the ceremony to 
begin. I looked curiously around to see if I could dis- 
tinguish the happy candidates for matrimonial honors ; but 
they were evidently concealed in one of the closed pologs. 
The eating and drinking seemed by this time to be about 
finished, and an air of expectation and suspense pervaded 
the entire crowd. Suddenly we were startled by the 
loud and regular beating of a native " baraban " or bass 
drum, which fairly filled the tent with a volume of sound 
At the same instant the tent opened to permit the passage 



IENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 199 

of a tall, stern-looking Korak, with an armful of willow 
sprouts and alder branches, which he proceeded to dis- 
tribute in all the pologs of the tent. "What do you 
suppose that's for?'' asked Dodd in an under-tone. "I 
don't know," was the reply ; " keep quiet and you'll see." 
The regular throbs of the drum continued throughout the 
distribution of the willow sticks, and at its close the 
drummer began to sing a low, musical recitative, which 
increased gradually in volume and energy until it swelled 
into a wild, barbarous chant, timed by the regular beats 
of the heavy drum. A slight commotion followed, the 
front curtains of all the pologs were thrown up, the 
women stationed themselves in detachments of two or 
three at the entrance of each polog, and took up the 
willow branches which had been provided. In a moment 
a venerable native, whom we presumed to be the father of 
one of the parties, emerged from one of the pologs near 
the door, leading a good-looking young Korak and the 
dark-faced bride. Upon their appearance the excitement 
increased to the pitch of frenzy, the music redoubled 
its rapidity, the men in the centre of the tent joined in 
the uncouth chant, and uttered at short intervals peculiar 
shrill cries of wild excitement, f At a given signal from the 
native who had led out the couple, the bride darted sud- 
denly into the first polog, and began a rapid flight around 
the tent, raising the curtains between the pologs succes- 
sively, and passing under^N The bridegroom instantly 
followed in hot pursuit ; but the women who were 
stationed in each compartment threw every possible 
impediment in his way, tripping up his unwary feet, hold 



200 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ing down the curtains to prevent his passage, and apply- 
ing the willow and alder switches unmercifully to a verj 
susceptible part of his body as he stooped to raise theim; 
The air was filled with drum-beats, shouts of encourage- 
ment and derision, and the sound of the heavy blows which 
were administered to the unlucky bridegroom by each 
successive detachment of women as he ran the gantlet. 
It became evident at once that despite his most violent 
efforts he would fail to overtake the flying Atalanta before 
she completed the circuit of the tent. Even the golden 
apples of Hesperides would have availed him little against 
such disheartening odds • but with undismayed perseve- 
rance he pressed on, stumbling headlong over the out- 
stretched feet of his female persecutors, and getting 
constantly entangled in the ample folds of the reindeer- 
skin curtains, which were thrown with the skill of a 
matador over his head and eyes. In a moment the bride 
had entered the last closed polog near the door, while the 
unfortunate bridegroom was still struggling with his 
accumulating misfortunes about half way around the tent. 
I expected to see him relax his efforts and give up the 
contest when the bride disappeared, and was pre- 
paring to protest strongly in his behalf against the 
unfairness of the trial ; but, to my surprise, he still strug- 
gled on, and with a final plunge burst through the curtains 
of the last polog and rejoined his bride. The music sud- 
denly ceased, and the throng began to stream out of the 
tent. The ceremony was evidently over. Turning to 
iVJ erorfeff, who with a delighted grin had watched its pro- 
gress, we inquired what it all meant. " Were they 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 201 

married ? " — " Da's," was the affirmative reply. " But," 
we objected, " he didn't catch her." — a She waited for him, 
your honor, in the last polog, and if he caught her there it 
was enough." — " Suppose he had not caught her there, 
then what ? " — " Then," answered the Cossack, with an 
expressive shrug of commiseration, ff the * Caidnak ' 
(poor fellow) would have had to work two more years." 
This was pleasant — for the bridegroom! To work two 
years for a wife, undergo a severe course of willow sprouts 
at the close of his apprenticeship, and then have no 
security against a possible breach of promise on the part 
of the bride. His faith in her constancy must be un- 
limited. The intention of the whole ceremony was 
evidently to give the woman an opportunity to marry the 
man or not, as she chose, since it was obviously impossi 
ble for him to catch her under such circumstances, unless 
she voluntarily waited for him in one of the pologs. The 
plan showed a more chivalrous regard and deference for the 
wishes and preferences of the gentler sex than is common 
in an unreconstructed state of society ; but it seemed to 
me, as an unprejudiced observer, that the same result 
might have been obtained without so much abuse of the 
unfortunate bridegroom ! Some regard ought to have 
been paid to his feelings, if he was a man. I could not 
ascertain the significance of the chastisement which was 
inflicted by the women upon the bridegroom with the 
willow switches. Dodd suggested that it might be em- 
blematical of married life — a sort of foreshadowing of 
future domestic experience ; but in view of the -nasculine 
Korak character, this hardly seemed to me probable 
9* 



202 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

No woman in her senses would try the experm r*' A 
second time upon one of the stern, resolute me', w^o 
witnessed that ceremony, and who seemed to regcrd it 
then as perfectly proper. Circumstances would undoubt- 
edly alter cases. 

Mr. A. S. Bickmore, in the American Journal of Science 
for May, 1868, notices this curious custom of the Koraks, 
and says that the chastisement is intended to test the 
young man's i l abil ity to bear up against the ills of life ; " 
but I would respectfully submit that the ills of life do not 
generally come in that shape, and that switching a man 
over the back with willow sprouts is a very singular way 
of preparing him for future misfortunes of any kind. 

Whatever may be the motive, it is certainly an infringe- 
ment upon the generally recognized prerogatives of the 
sterner sex, and should be discountenanced by all Koraks 
who favor masculine supremacy. Before they know it, 
they will have a woman's suffrage association on their 
hands, and female lecturers will be going about from band 
to band advocating the substitution of hickory clubs and 
slung-shots for the harmless willow' switches, and protest- 
ing against the tyranny which will not permit them to in- 
dulge in this interesting diversion at least three times a 
/week. 

After the conclusion of the ceremony we removed to 
an adjacent tent, and were surprised, as we came out into 
the open air, to see three or four Koraks shouting and 
reeling about in an advanced stage of intoxication — cele- 
brating, I suppose, the happy event which had just trans- 
pired. I knew that there was not a drop of alcoholic 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 20J 

liquor in all Northern Kamtchatka, nor, so far as I knew, 
anything from which it could be made, and it was a mys- 
tery to me how they had succeeded in becoming so sudden- 
ly, thoroughly, hopelessly, undeniably drunk. Even Ross 
Browne's beloved Washoe, with its "howling wilderness'' 
saloons, could not have turned out more creditable speci- 
mens of intoxicated humanity than those before us. The 
exciting agent, whatever it might be, was certainly as 
quick in its operation, and as effective in its results, as any 
"tangle-foot" or "bottled lightning" known to modern 
civilization. Upon inquiry we learned to our astonish- 
ment that they had been eating a species of the plant vul- 
garly known as toadstool. There is a peculiar fungus of 
this class in Siberia, known to the natives as " muk-a-moor," 
and as it possesses active intoxicating properties, it is 
used as a stimulant by nearly all the Siberian tribes. 
Taken in large quantities it is a violent narcotic poison • 
but in small doses it produces all the effects of alcoholic 
liquor. Its habitual use, however, completely shatters the 
nervous system, and its sale by Russian traders to the 
natives has consequently been made a penal offence by 
Russian law. In spite of all prohibitions, the trade is 
still secretly carried on, and I have seen twenty dollars 
worth of furs bought with a single fungus. The Koraks 
would gather it for themselves, but it requires the shelter 
of timber for its growth, and is not to be found on the 
barren steppes over which they wander ; so that they are 
obliged for the most part to buy it, at enormous prices, 
from the Russian traders. It may sound strangely to 
American ears, but the invitation which a convivial Korak 



204 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

extends to his passing friend is not, " Come in and have a 
drink," but, "Won't you come in and take a toadstool ? .." 
Not a very alluring proposal perhaps to a civilized toper, 
but one which has a magical effect upon a dissipated 
Korak. As the supply of these toadstools is by no means 
equal to the demand, Korak ingenuity has been greatly 
exercised in the endeavor to economize the precious 
stimulant, and make it go as far as possible. Sometimes, 
in the course of human events, it becomes imperatively 
necessary that a whole band shall get drunk together, 
and they have only one toadstool to do it with. For 
a description of the manner in which this band gets 
drunk collectively and individually upon one fungus, and 
keeps drunk for a week, the curious reader is referred to 
Goldsmith's "Citizen of the World," Letter 32. It is 
but just to say, however, that this horrible practice is 
almost entirely confined to the settled Koraks of Penz- 
hinsk Gulf — the lowest, most degraded portion of the 
whole tribe. It may prevail to a limited extent among 
the wandering natives, but I never heard of more than 
one such instance outside of the Penzhinsk Gulf settle- 
ments. 

Our travel for the next few days after leaving the third 
encampment was fatiguing and monotonous. The un- 
varying routine of our daily life in smoky Korak tents, 
and the uniform flatness and barrenness of the country 
over which we journeyed, became inexpressibly tiresome, 
and we looked forward in longing anticipation to the 
Russian settlement of Geezhega, at the head of Geezhe- 
ginsk Gulf, which was the Mecca of our long pilgrimage 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 205 

To spend more than a week at one time with the Wander- 
ing Koraks without becoming lonesome or homesick, 
required an almost inexhaustible fertility of mental re- 
source. One is thrown for entertainment entirely upot) 
himself. No daily paper, with its fresh material foi 
thought and discussion, comes to enliven the long blank 
evenings by the tent fire ; no wars or rumors of wars, no 
coup d'etat of state diplomacy, no excitement of political 
canvass ever agitates the stagnant intellectual atmosphere 
of Korak existence. Removed to an infinite distance, 
both physically and intellectually, from all of the interests, 
ambitions, and excitements which make up our world, the 
Korak simply exists, like a human oyster, in the quiet 
waters of his monotonous life. An occasional birth or 
marriage, the sacrifice of a dog, or, on rare occasions, of a 
man to the Korak Ahriman, and the infrequent visits of a 
Russian trader, are the most prominent events in his his- 
tory, from the cradle to the grave. I found it almost im- 
possible sometimes to realize, as I sat by the fire in a 
Korak tent, that I was still in the modern world of rail- 
roads, telegraphs, and daily newspapers. I seemed to 
have been carried back by some enchantment through 
the long cycles of time, and made a dweller in the tents 
of Shem and Japheth. Not a suggestion was there in all 
our surroundings of the vaunted enlightenment and civi- 
lization of the nineteenth century, and as we gradually 
accustomed ourselves to the new and strange conditions 
of primitive barbarism, our recollections of a civilized life 
faded into the unreal imagery of a vivid dream. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Our long intercourse with the Wandering Koraks gave 
us an opportunity of observing many of their peculiarities, 
which would very likely escape the notice of a transient 
visitor ; and as our journey until we reached the head of 
Penzhinsk Gulf was barren of incident, I will close this 
chapter with all the information which I could gather 
relative to the language, religion, superstitions, customs, 
and mode of life of the Kamtchatkan Koraks. 

There can be no doubt whatever that the Koraks and 
the powerful Siberian tribe known as Chookchees (or 
Tchucktchis, according to Vrangell) descended originally 
from the same stock, and migrated together from their 
ancient locations to the places where they now live. 
Even after several centuries of separation, they resemble 
each other so closely that they can hardly be distinguished, 
and their languages differ less one from the other than 
the Portuguese differs from the Spanish. Our Korak 
interpreters found very little difficulty in conversing with 
Chookchees ; and a comparison of vocabularies which we 
afterward made showed only a slight dialectical variation, 
which could be easily accounted for by a few centuries of 
separation. None of the Siberian languages with which I 
am acquainted are written, and, lacking a fixed standard 
of reference, they change with great rapidity. This is 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 20? 

shown by a comparison of a modern Chookchee vocabu- 
lary with the one compiled by M. de Lesseps in 1 788. 
Many words have altered so materially as to be hardly 
recognizable. Others, on the contrary, such as " tin tin," 
ice, " oottoot," wood, " weengay," no, " ay," yes, and 
most of the numerals up to ten, have undergone no change 
whatever. Both Koraks and Chookchees count by fives 
instead of tens, a peculiarity which is also noticeable in the 
language of the Co-Yukons in Alaska. The Korak numer- 
als are : — 



Innin, 


One. 


Nee-ak°h, 


Two. 


Nee-6k°h, 


Three. 


Nee-ak°h, 


Four. 


Mil-li-gen, 


Five. 


In-nin mil-li-gen, 


Five-one. 


Ne<3-ak°h " 


Five-two. 


Nee-okh " 


Five-three. 


Nee-akh " 


Five-four. 



Meen-ye-geet-k°hin, Ten. 

After ten they count ten- one, ten-two, etc., up to fifteen, 
and then ten-five-one ; but their numerals become so hope- 
lessly complicated when they get above twenty, that it 
would be easier to carry a pocketful of stones and count 
with them, than to pronounce the corresponding words. 

Fifty-six, for instance, is " Nee-akh-khleep-kin-meen-ye- 
geet-khin-par-ol-in-nin-mil-li-gen," and it is only fifty-six 
after it is all pronounced ! It ought to be at least two 
hundred and sixty- three millions nine hundred and four- 
teen thousand seven hundred and one — and then it would 



208 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

be long. But the Koraks rarely have occasion to use 
high numbers ; and when they do, they have an abundance 
of time. It would be a hard day's work for a boy to 
explain in Korak one of the miscellaneous problems in 
Ray's Higher Arithmetic. To say 324x5260 = 1,704,240 
would certainly entitle him to a recess of an hour and a 
reward of merit. We were never able to trace any re- 
semblance whatever between the Koraki-Chookchee lan- 
guage and the languages spoken by the natives on the 
eastern side of Behring's Straits. If there be any resem- 
blance, it must be in grammar rather than in vocabulary. 
The religion of all the natives of Northeastern Siberia, 
wandering and settled, including six or seven widely dif- 
ferent tribes, is that corrupted form of Buddhism known 
as " Shamanism." It is a religion which varies consider- 
ably in different places and among different people ; but 
with the Koraks and Chookchees it may be briefly defined 
as the worship of the evil spirits who are supposed to be 
embodied in all the mysterious powers and manifestations 
of Nature, such as epidemic and contagious diseases, 
severe storms, famines, eclipses, and brilliant Auroras. 
It takes its name from the " Shamans ' ■ or priests, who act 
as interpreters of the evil spirits' wishes and as mediators 
between them and man. All unnatural phenomena, and 
especially those of a disastrous and terrible nature, are 
attributed to the direct action of these evil spirits, and are 
considered as plain manifestations of their displeasure. 
It is claimed by many that the whole system of " Shaman- 
ism" is a gigantic, imposture practised by a few cunning 
priests upon the easy credulity of superstitious natives 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 209 

This I am sure is a prejudiced view. No one who has 
ever lived with the Siberian natives, studied their character, 
subjected himself to the same influences that surround 
them, and put himself as far as possible in their places, 
will ever doubt the sincerity of either priests or followers, 
or wonder that the worship of evil spirits should be their 
only religion. It is the only religion possible for such 
men in such circumstances. A recent writer * of great 
fairness and impartiality has described so admirably the 
character of the Siberian Koraks, and the origin and nature 
nf their religious belief, that I cannot do better than quote 
his words : — 

(J Terror is everywhere the beginning of religion. The 
phenomena which impress themselves most forcibly on 
the mind of the savage are not those which enter mani- 
festly into the sequence of natural laws, and which are 
productive of most beneficial effects ; but those which are 
disastrous and apparently abnormal. Gratitude is less 
vivid than fear, and the smallest infraction of a natural 
law produces a deeper impression than the most sublime 
of its ordinary operations. When, therefore, the most 
startling and terrible aspects of Nature are presented to 
'lis mind — when the more deadly forms of disease or na- 
tural convulsion desolate his land, the savage derives fiom 
them an intensely realized perception of diabolical pres- 
ence. In the darkness of the night ; amid the yawning 
chasms and the wild echoes of the mountain gorge ; undei 
the blaze of the comet or the solemn gloom of the eclipse ; 

* W. E. H. Lecky. Hist, of Rationalisin in Europe, 



2IO TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

• 

when famine has blasted the land; when the eaithquafoa 
and the pestilence have slaughtered their thousands ; in 
every form of disease which refracts and distorts the rea- 
son, in all that is strange, portentous, and deadl) r , he feels 
and cowers before the supernatural. Completely exposed 
to all the influences of Nature, and completely ignorant of 
the chain of sequence that unites its various parts, he 
lives in continual dread of what he deems the direct and 
isolated acts of evil spirits. Feeling them continually 
near him, he will naturally endeavor to enter into commu- 
nion with them. He will strive to propitiate them with 
gifts. If some great calamity has fallen upon him, or if 
some vengeful passion has mastered his reason, he will at- 
tempt to invest himself with their authority, and his excited 
imagination will soon persuade him that he has succeeded 
in his desire." 

These pregnant words are the key to the religion of the 
Siberian natives, and afford the only intelligible explana- 
tion of the origin of "Shamans." If any proof were 
needed that this system of religion is the natural out- 
growth of human nature in certain conditions of barbarism, 
it would be furnished by the universal prevalence of 
Shamanism in Northeastern Siberia among so many diverse 
tribes of different character and different origin. The tribe 
of Tungoos, for instance, is certainly of Chinese descent, 
and the tribe of Yakoots is certainly Turkish. Both came 
from different regions, bringing different beliefs, supersti- 
tions, and modes of thought ; but, when both were removed 
from all disturbing agencies and subjected to the same ex- 
ternal influences, both developed precisely the same system 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 211 

of religious belief. If a band of ignorant, barbarous Mahom- 
etans were transported to Northeastern Siberia, and com- 
pelled to live alone in tents, century after century, amid the 
wild, gloomy scenery of the Stanavoi Mountains, to suffer 
terrific storms whose causes they could not explain, to 
lose their reindeer suddenly by an epidemic disease which 
defied human remedies, to be frightened by magnificent 
Auroras that set the whole universe in a blaze, and de- 
cimated by pestilences whose nature they could not under- 
stand and whose disastrous effects they were powerless to 
avert — they would almost inevitably lose by degrees their 
faith in Allah and Mahomet, and become precisely such 
Shamanists as the Siberian Koraks and Chookchees are 
to-day. Even a whole century of partial civilization and 
Christian training cannot wholly counteract the irresistible 
Sbamanistic influence which is exerted upon the mind by 
the wilder, more terrible manifestations of Nature in these 
lonely and inhospitable regions. The Kamtchadals who 
accompanied me to the Samanka Mountains were the sons 
of Christian parents, and had been brought up from in- 
fancy in the Greek Church ; they were firm believers in 
the Divine atonement and in Divine Providence, and 
prayed always night and morning for safety and preserva- 
tion; yet, when overtaken by a storm in that gloomy 
range of mountains, the sense of the supernatural overcame 
their religious convictions, God seemed far away while evil 
spirits were near and active, and they sacrificed a dog, like 
very pagans, to propitiate the diabolical wrath of which 
the storm was an evidence. I could cite many similar 
instances, where the strongest and apparently most sincere 



212 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

convictions of the reality of Divine government and super " 
intendence have been overcome by the influence upon the 
imagination of some startling and unusual phenomenon of 
Nature. Man's actions are governed not so much by 
what he intellectually believes as by what he vividly re- 
alizes ; and it is this vivid realization of diabolical presence 
which has given rise to the religion of Shamanism. 

The duties of the Shamans or priests among the Koraks 
are, to make incantations over the sick, to hold communi- 
cation with the evil spirits, and to interpret their wishes 
and decrees to man. Whenever any calamity, such as 
disease, storm, or famine comes upon a band, it is of 
course attributed to some spirit's displeasure, and the Sha- 
man is consulted as to the best method of appeasing his 
wrath. The priest to whom application is made assembles 
the people in one of the largest tents of the encampment, 
puts on a long robe marked with fantastic figures of birds 
and beasts and curious hieroglyphic emblems, unbinds his 
long black hair, and taking up a large native drum, begins 
to sing in a subdued voice to the accompaniment of slow, 
steady drum-beats. As the song progresses it increases 
in energy and rapidity, the priest's eyes seem to become 
fixed, he contorts his body as if in spasms, and increases 
the vehemence of his wild chant until the drum-beats 
make one continuous roll. Then, springing to his feet and 
jerking his head convulsively until his long hair fairly 
snaps, he begins a frantic dance about the tent, and finally 
sinks apparently exhausted into his seat. In a few mo- 
ments he delivers to the awe-stricken natives the message 
which he has received from the evil spirits, and which 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 213 

consists generally of an order to sacrifice a certain num- 
ber of dogs or reindeer, or perhaps a man, to the offended 
deities. 

r 

(_ In these wild incantations the priests sometimes prac- 
tice all sorts of frauds upon their credulous followers, by 
pretending to swallow live coals and to pierce their bodies 
with knives; but, in a majority of instances, the Shaman 
seems to actually believe that he is under the control and 
guidance of diabolical intelligence. j The natives them- 
selves, however, seem to doubt occasionally the priest's 
pretended inspiration, and whip him severely to test the 
sincerity of his professions and the genuineness of his 
revelations. If his fortitude sustains him under the in- 
fliction without any exhibition of human weakness or 
suffering, his authority as a minister of the evil spirits is 
vindicated, and his commands obeyed. Aside from the 
sacrifices which are ordered by the Shamans, the Koraks 
offer general oblations at least twice a year, to insure 
a good catch of fish and seal and a prosperous season. 
We frequently saw twenty or thirty dogs suspended by 
the hind legs on long poles over a single encampment. 
Quantities of green grass are collected during the summer 
and twisted into wreaths, to be hung around the necks of 
the slaughtered animals ; and offerings of tobacco are 
always thrown to the evil spirits when the Koraks cross 
the summit of a mountain. The bodies of the dead, 
among all the wandering tribes, are burned, together with 
all their effects, in the hope of a final resurrection of both 
spirit and matter ; and the sick, as soon as their recovery 
becomes hopeless, are either stoned to death or speared 



214 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

We found it to be true, as we had been told by the Rua 
sians and the Kamtchadals, that the Koraks murdered all 
their old people as soon as sickness or the infirmities of 
age unfitted them for the hardships of a nomadic life. 
Long experience has given them a terrible familiarity 
with the best and quickest methods of taking life ; and 
they often explained to us with the most sickening 
minuteness, as we sat at night in their smoky pologs, the 
different ways in which a man could be killed, and pointed 
out the vital parts of the body where a spear or knife 
thrust would prove most instantly fatal. I thougnt of 
De Quince/ s celebrated Essay upon " Murder Considered 
as one of the Fine Arts," and of the field which a Korak 
encampment would afford to his " Society of Connoisseurs 
in Murder." All Koraks are taught to look upon such 
a death as the natural end of their existence, and they 
meet it generally with perfect composure. Instances are 
rare where a man desires to outlive the period of his 
physical activity and usefulness. They are put to death 
in the presence of the whole band, with elaborate but un- 
intelligible ceremonies ; their bodies are then burned, and 
the ashes suffered to be scattered and blown away by the 
wind. 

These customs of murdering the old and sick, and 
burning the bodies of the dead, grow naturally out of the 
wandering life which the Koraks have adopted, and are 
only illustrations of the powerful influence which physical 
laws exert everywhere upon the actions and moral feel- 
ings of men. They both follow logically and almost 
inevitably from the very nature of the country and eli 






TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 2X$ 

mate. The barrenness of the soil in Northeastern Siberia, 
and the severity of the long winter, led man to domesticate 
the reindeer as the only means of obtaining a subsistence ; 
the domestication of the reindeer necessitated a wander- 
ing life ; a wandering life made sickness and infirmity 
unusually burdensome to both sufferers and supporters ; 
and this finally led to the murder of the old and sick, as a 
measure both of policy and mercy. The same causes 
gave rise to the custom of burning the dead. Their 
nomadic life made it impossible for them to have any one 
place of common sepulture, and only with the greatest 
difficulty could they dig graves at all in the perpetually 
frozen ground. Bodies could not be left to be torn by 
wolves, and burning them was the only practicable alter- 
native. Neither of these customs presupposes any original 
and innate savageness or barbarity on the part of the Ko- 
raks themselves. They are the natural development of 
certain circumstances, and only prove that the strongest 
emotions of human nature, such as filial reverence, fra- 
ternal affection, selfish love of life, and respect for the 
remains of friends, all are powerless to oppose the opera- 
tion of great natural laws. The Russian Church is en- 
deavoring by missionary enterprise to convert all the 
Siberian tribes to Christianity ; and although they have met 
with a certain degree of apparent success among the settled 
tribes of Yookagaree, Chooancee, and Kamtchadalle, the 
wandering natives still cling to Shamanism, and there are 
more than 70,000 followers of that religion in the scanty 
population of Northeastern Siberia. Any permanent and 
genuine conversion of the Wandering Koraks and Chook- 



2l6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

chees must be preceded by some educational enlighten* 
ment and an entire change in their mode of life. 

Among the many superstitions of the Wandering Ko- 
laks and Chookchees, one of the most noticeable is their 
reluctance to part with a living reindeer. You may pur- 
chase as many dead deer as you choose, up to five hun- 
dred, for about seventy cents apiece ; but a living deei 
they will not give to you for love nor money. You may 
offer them what they consider a fortune in tobacco ; cop- 
per kettles, beads, and scarlet cloth, for a single live rein- 
deer, but they will persistently refuse to sell him ; yet, if 
you will allow them to kill the very same animal, you can 
have his carcass for one small string of common glass 
beads. It is useless to argue with them about this absurd 
superstition. You can get no reason for it or explanation 
of it, except that " to sell a live reindeer would be ' at- 
kin ' — bad." As it was very necessary in the construction 
of our proposed telegraph line to have trained reindeer 
of our own, we offered every conceivable inducement to 
the Koraks to part with one single deer ; but all our 
efforts were in vain. They could sell us a hundred dead 
deer for a hundred pounds of tobacco ; but five hundred 
pounds would not tempt them to part with a single ani- 
mal as long as the breath of life was in his body. During 
the two years and a half which we spent in Siberia, no 
one of our parties, so far as I know, ever succeeded in 
buying from the Koraks or Chookchees a single living 
reindeer. All the deer which we eventually owned — i 
some eight hundred— we obtained from the Wandering 
Tungoos. 






TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 21 J 

The Koraks are probably the weathiest deer-owners in 
Siberia, and consequently in the world. Many of the 
herds which we saw in Northern Kamtchatka numbered 
from eight to twelve thousand ; and we were told that a 
certain rich Korak, who lived in the middle of the great 
" Toondra," had three immense herds in different places, 
numbering in the aggregate thirty thousand head. The 
care of these great herds is almost the only occupation of 
the Koraks' lives. They are obliged to travel constantly 
from place to place to find them food, and to watch them 
night and day to protect them from wolves. Every day, 
eight or ten Koraks, armed with spears and knives, leave 
the encampment just before dark, walk a mile or two to 
the place where the deer happen to be pastured, build 
themselves little huts of trailing pine branches, about three 
feet in height and two in diameter, and squat in them 
throughout the long, cold hours of an arctic night, watching 
for wolves. The worse the weather is, the greater the 
necessity for vigilance. Sometimes, in the middle of a 
dark winter's night, when a terrible northeast storm is 
howling across the steppe in clouds of flying snow, a 
band of wolves will make a fierce, sudden attack upon a 
herd of deer, and scatter it to the four winds. This it is 
the business of the Korak sentinels to prevent. Alone 
and almost unsheltered on a great ocean of snow, each 
man squats down in his frail bee-hive of a hut ; and 
spends the long winter nights in watching the magni- 
ficent Auroras, which seem to fill the blue vault of heaven 
with blood and dye the earth in crimson, listening to the 

pulsating of the blood in his ears and the faint distant 
10 



2l8 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

howls of his enemies the wolves. Patiently he endures 
cold which freezes mercury into solid lumps, and storms 
which sweep away his frail shelter like chaff in a mist of 
flying snow. Nothing discourages him ; nothing frightens 
him into seeking the shelter of the tents. I I have seen 
him watching deer at night, with nose and cheeks frozen 
so that they had mortified and turned black ; and have 
come upon him early cold winter mornings, squatting 
under three or four bushes, with his face buried in his fur 
coat, as if he were dead. I could never pass one of those 
little bush-huts on a great desolate "toondra" without 
thinking of the man who had once squatted in it alone, 
and trying to imagine what had been his thoughts while 
watching through long dreary nights for the first faint 
flush of dawn. Had he never wondered, as the fiery arms 
of the Aurora waved over ftis head, what caused these 
mysterious streamers ? Had the solemn far-away stars 
which circled ceaselessly above the snowy plain never 
suggested to him the possibility of other brighter, happier 
worlds than this ? Had not some 

" revealings faint and far, 



Stealing down from moon and star, 
Kindled in that human clod 
Thought of Destiny and God ? " 

Alas for poor unaided human nature ! Supernatural 
influences he could and did feel ; but the drum and wild 
shrieks of the Shaman showed how utterly he failed to un- 
derstand their nature and teachings. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



219 



The natural disposition of the Wandering Koraks is 
thoroughly good. ( They treat their women and children 
with great kindness ; and during all my intercourse with 
them, extending over two years, I never saw a woman oi 
a child struck. Their honesty is remarkable. Frequently 
they would harness up a team of reindeer after we had 
left their tents in the morning, and overtake us at a dis- 
tance of five or ten miles, with a knife, a pipe, or some 
such trifle which we had overlooked and forgotten in the 
hurry of departure. Our sledges, loaded with tobacco, 
beads, and trading goods of all kinds, were left unguarded 
outside their tents ; but never, so far as we knew, was a 
single article stolen. We were treated by many bands with 
as much kindness and generous hospitality as I ever ex- 
perienced in a civilized country and among Christian 
people ; and if I had no money or friends, I would appeal 
to a band of Wandering Koraks for help with much more 
confidence than I would ask the same favor of many an 
American family. Cruel and barbarous they may be, ac 
cording to our ideas of cruelty and barbarity; but they have 
never been known to commit an act of treachery, and 
I would trust my life as unreservedly in their hands as I 
would in the hands of any other uncivilized people whom 
I have ever known. 

Night after night, as we journeyed to the northward, tlr? 
polar star approached nearer and nearer to the zenith, 
until finally, at the sixty-second parallel of latitude, we 
caught sight of the white peaks of the Stanavoi Mountains, 
at the head of Penzhinsk Gulf, which marked the north- 
ern boundary of Kamtchatka. Under the shelter oftheii 



220 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

snowy slopes we camped for the last iirre in the smoky 
tents of the Kamtchatkan Koraks, ate ior the last time 
from their wooden troughs, and bade good-V/ with little 
regret to the desolate steppes of the peninsula and to tent* 
life with its wandering people. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

On the morning of November 23d, in a clear, bracing 
atmosphere of twenty-five degrees below zero, we arrived 
at the mouth of the large river called the Penzhina, which 
empties into Penzhinsk Gulf, at the head of the Okhotsk 
Sea. A dense cloud of frozen mist, which hung over the 
middle of the gulf, showed the presence there of open 
water ; but the mouth of the river was completely choked 
up with great hummocks, rugged green slabs, and con- 
fused masses of ice, hurled in by a southwest storm, and 
frozen together in the wildest shapes of angular disorder. 
Through the gray mist we could see dimly, on a high 
bluff opposite, the strange outlines of the X-shaped yourts 
of the Kamenoi Koraks. 

Leaving our drivers to get the reindeer and sledges 
across as best they could, the Major, Dodd, and I started 
on foot, picking our way between huge irregular blocks 
of clear green ice, climbing on hands and knees over 
enormous bergs, falling into wide, deep crevices, and 
stumbling painfully across the chevaux-de-frise of sharp 
splintered fragments into which the ice had been broken 
by a heavy sea. We had almost reached the other side, 
when Dodd suddenly cried out, " Oh, Kennan ! Your 
nose is all white ; rub it with snow — quick ! " I have noi 



22 2 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

the slightest doubt that the rest of my face aljo turned 
white at this alarming announcement ; for the loss of my 
nose at the very outset of my Arctic career would be a 
"ory serious misfortune. I caught up a handful of snow, 
however, mixed with sharp splinters of ice, and rubbed 
the insensible member until there was not a particle of 
skin left on the end of it, and then continued the friction 
with my mitten until my arm ached. If energetic treat- 
ment would save it, I was determined not to lose it that 
time. Feeling at last a painful thrill of returning circulation, 
I relaxed my efforts, and climbed up the steep bluff behind 
Dodd and the Major, to the Korak village of Kamenoi. 

The settlement resembled as much as anything a col- 
lection of Titanic wooden hour-glasses, which had been 
half shaken down and reduced to a staie of rickety 
dilapidation by an earthquake. The houses — if houses 
they could be called — were about twenty feet in height, 
rudely constructed of drift-wood which had been thrown 
up by the sea, and could be compared in shape to nothing 
but hour-glasses. They had no doors or windows of any 
kind, and could only be entered by climbing up a pole on 
the outside, and sliding down another pole through the 
chimney — a mode of entrance whose practicability de- 
pended entirely upon the activity and intensity of the 
fire which burned underneath. The smoke and sparks, 
although sufficiently disagreeable, were trifles of compara- 
tive insignificance. I remember being told, in early 
infancy, that Santa Claus always came into a house 
through the chimney ; and although I accepted the state- 
ment with the unreasoning faith of childhood, I could 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 22J 

never understand how that singular feat of climbing down 
a chimney could be safely accomplished. To satisfy my- 
self, I felt a strong inclination, every Christmas, to try 
the experiment, and was only prevented from doing sd 
by the consideration of stove-pipes. I might succeed, I 
thought, in getting down the chimney; but coming out 
into a room through an eight-inch stove-pipe and a nar- 
row stove-door was utterly out of the question. My first 
entrance into a Korak yourt, however, at Kamenoi, 
solved all my childish difficulties, and proved the possi- 
bility of entering a house in the eccentric way which 
Santa Claus is supposed to adopt. A large crowd of 
savage-looking fur-clad natives had gathered around us 
when we entered the village, and now stared at us with 
stupid curiosity as we made our first attempt at climbing 
a pole to get into a house. Out of deference for the 
Major's rank and superior attainments, we permitted him 
to go first. He succeeded very well in getting up the 
first pole, and lowered himself with sublime faith into the 
dark narrow chimney-hole, out of which were pouring 
clouds of smoke ; but at this critical moment, when his 
head was still dimly visible in the smoke, and his body 
out of sight in the chimney, he suddenly came to grief. 
The holes in the log down which he was climbing were 
too small to admit even his toes, covered as they were 
with heavy fur boots ; and there he hung in the chimney, 
afraid to drop and unable to climb out — a melancholy 
picture of distress. Tears ran out of his closed eyes as 
the smoke enveloped his head, and he only coughed and 
strangled whenever he tried to shout for help. At last a 



224 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

native on the inside, startled at the appearance of hi* 
struggling body, came to his assistance, and succeeded in 
lowering him safely to the ground. Profiting by his ex 
perience, Dodd and I paid no attention to the holes, but 
putting our arms around the smooth log, slid swiftly down 
until we struck bottom. As I opened my tearful eyes, I 
was saluted by a chorus of drawling "Zda-ro'-o-o-va's" 
from half a dozen skinny, greasy old women, who sat 
cross-legged on a raised platform around the fire, sewing 
fur clothes. 

The interior of a Korak yourt — that is, of one of the 
wooden yourts of the settled Korak s — presents a strange 
and not very inviting appearance to one who has never 
become accustomed by long habit to its dirt, smoke, and 
frigid atmosphere. It receives its only light, and that of 
a cheerless, gloomy character, through the round hole, 
about twenty feet above the floor, which serves as win- 
dow, door, and chimney, and which is reached by a round 
log with holes in it, that stands perpendicularly in the 
centre. The beams, rafters, and logs which compose the 
yourt are all of a glossy blackness, from the smoke in 
which they are constantly enveloped. A wooden plat- 
form, raised about a foot from the earth, extends out 
from the walls on three sides to a width of six feet, leav- 
ing an open spot eight or ten feet in diameter in the cen- 
tre for the fire and a huge copper kettle of melting snow. 
On the platform are pitched three or four square skin 
pologs, which serve as sleeping apartments for the inmates 
and as refuges from the smoke, which sometimes becomes 
almost unenduiable. A little circle of flat stones on the 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 225 

ground, in the centre of the yourt, forms the fire place, 
over which is usually simmering a kettle of fish or rein- 
deer-meat, which, with dried salmon, seal's blubber, and 
rancid oil, makes up the Korak bill of fare. Everything 
which you see or touch bears the distinguishing marks oi 
Korak origin — grease and smoke. Whenever any one 
enters the yourt, you are apprised of the fact by a total 
eclipse of the chimney-hole and a sudden darkness, and 
as you look up through a mist of reindeer hairs, scraped 
off from the coming man's fur coat, you see a thin pair 
of legs descending the pole in a cloud of smoke. The 
legs of your acquaintances you soon learn to recognize 
by some peculiarity of shape and covering ; and their 
faces, considered as means of personal identification, 
assume a secondary importance. If you see Ivan's legs 
coming down the chimney, you feel a moral certainty 
that Ivan's head is somewhere above in the smoke ; and 
Nicolai's boots, appearing in bold relief against the sky 
through the entrance hole, afford as satisfactory proof of 
Nicolai's identity as his head would, provided that part 
of his body came in first. Legs, therefore, are the most 
expressive features of a Korak' s countenance, when con- 
sidered from an interior standpoint. When snow drifts 
up against the yourt, so as to give the dogs access to the 
chimney, they take a perfect delight in lying around the 
hole, peering down into the yourt, and snuffing the odors 
of boiling fish which rise from the huge kettle underneath. 
("Not unfrequently they get into a grand comprehensive 
free fight for the best place of observation ; and just as 

you are about to take your dinner cK" fciW s^roon off 
10* 



226 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

the fire, down comes a struggling, yelping dog into the 
kettle, while his triumphant antagonist looks down through 
the chimney-hole with all the complacency of gratified 
vengeance upon his unfortunate victim. A Korak takes 
the half-scalded dog by the back of the neck, carries him 
up the chimney, pitches him over the edge of the yourt 
into a snow-drift, and returns with unruffled serenity to 
eat the fish-soup which has thus been irregularly flavored 
with dog and thickened with hairs. Hairs, and especially 
reindeer's hairs, are among the indispensable ingredients 
of everything cooked in a Korak yourt, and we soon 
came to regard them with perfect indifference. No mat- 
ter what precautions we might take, they were sure to find 
their way into our tea and soup, and stick persistently to 
our fried meat. Some one was constantly going out or 
coming in over the fire, and the reindeer-skin coats scrap- 
ing back and forth through the chimney-hole shed a per- 
fect cloud of short gray hairs, which sifted down over 
and into everything of an eatable nature underneath. 
Our first meal in a Korak yourt, therefore, at Kamenoi. 
was not at all satisfactory. 

We had not been twenty minutes in the settlement before 
the yourt which we occupied was completely crowded with 
stolid, brutal-looking men, dressed in spotted deer-skin 
clothes, wearing strings of colored beads in their ears, and 
carrying heavy knives two feet in length in sheaths tied 
around their legs. They were evidently a different class of 
natives from any we had yet seen, and their savage animal 
faces did not inspire us with much confidence. A good- 
looking Russian, however, soon made his appearance, and 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 2 2 ? 

coming up to us with uncovered head, bowed and intro- 
duced himself as a Cossack from Geezhega, sent to meet 
us by the Russian Governor at that place. The courier 
who had preceded us from Lesnoi had reached Geezhega 
ten days before us, and the Governor had despatched a Cos- 
sack at once to meet us at Kamenoi, and conduct us through 
the settled Korak villages around the head of Penzhinsk 
Gulf. The Cossack soon cleared the yourt of natives, 
and the Major proceeded to question him about the char- 
acter of the country north and west of Geezhega, the dis- 
tance from Kamenoi to the Russian outpost of Anadyrsk, 
the facilities for winter travel, and the time necessary for 
the journey. Fearful for the safety of the party of men 
which he presumed to have been landed by the engineer- 
in-chief at the mouth of the Anadyr River, Major Abaza 
had intended to go directly from Kamenoi to Anadyrsk 
himself in search of them, and to send Dodd and me 
westward along the coast of the Okhotsk Sea to meet 
Mahood and Bush. The Cossack, however, told us that 
a party of men from the Anadyr River had arrived at 
Geezhega on dog-sledges just previous to his departure, 
and that they had brought no news of any Americans in 
the vicinity of Anadyrsk or on the river. Col. Bulkley, 
the chief-engineer of the enterprise, had promised us, 
when we sailed from San Francisco, that he would land a 
pa.rty of men with a whaleboat at or near the mouth of 
the Anadyr River, early enough in the season so that they 
could ascend the river to the settlement of Anadyrsk and 
open communication with us by the first winter road- 
This he had evidently failed to do ; for, if a party had been 



228 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

so landed, the Anadyrsk people would certainly have heard 
something about it. The unfavorable nature of the coun- 
try around Behring's Straits, or the lateness of the season 
when the company's vessels reached that point, had 
probably compelled the abandonment of this part of the 
original plan. Major Abaza had always disapproved the 
idea of leaving a party near Behring's Straits ; but he could 
not help feeling a little disappointment when he found 
that no such party had been landed, and that he was left 
with only four men to explore the eighteen hundred 
miles of country between the straits and the Amoor River. 
The Cossack said that no difficulty would be experienced 
in getting dog-sledges and men at Geezhega to explore 
any part of the country west or north of that place, and 
that the Russian Governor would give us every possible 
assistance. 

Under these circumstances there was nothing to be 
done but to push on to Geezhega, which could be reached, 
the Cossack said, in two or three days. The Kamenoi 
Koraks were ordered to provide a dozen dog-sledges at 
once, to carry us on to the next settlement of Shestakova ; 
and the whole village was soon engaged, under the Cos- 
sack's superintendence, in transferring our baggage and 
provisions from the deer-sledges of the Wandering Koraks 
to the long, narrow dog- sledges of their settled relations. 
Our old drivers were then paid off in tobacco, beads, and 
showy calico prints, and after a good deal of quarreling 
and disputing about loads between the Koraks and our 
new Cossack Kerrillof, everything was reported ready. 
Although it was now almost noon, the air was still keen 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 22g 

as a knife ; and, muffling up our faces and heads in great 
tippets, we took seats on our respective sledges, and the 
fierce Kamenoi dogs went careering out of the village 
and down the bluft in a perfect cloud of snow, raised by 
the spiked " oerstels " of their drivers. 

The Major, Dodd, and I were travelling in covered 
sledges, known to the Siberians as " pavoskas," and the 
reckless driving of the Kamenoi Koraks made us wish, in 
less than an hour, that we had taken some other means 
of conveyance, from which we could escape more readily 
in case of accident or overturn. As it was, we were so 
boxed up that we could hardly move without assistance. 
Our pavoskas resembled very much long narrow coffins, 
covered with seal-skin and mounted on runners, and 
roofed over at the head by a stiff hood just large enough 
to sit up in. A heavy curtain was fastened to the edge 
of this top or hood, and in bad weather it could be pulled 
down and buttoned so as to exclude the air and flying 
snow. When we were seated in these sledges our legs 
were thrust down into the long coffin-shaped boxes upon 
which the drivers sat, and our heads and shoulders shel- 
tered by the seal-skin hoods. Imagine an eight-foot cof- 
fin mounted on runners, and a man sitting up in it with a 
bushel basket over his head, and you will have a very 
correct idea of a Siberian pavoska. Our legs were im- 
movably fixed in boxes, and our bodies so wedged in with 
pillows and heavy furs that we could neither get out nor 
turn over. In this helpless condition we were completely 
at our drivers' mercy ; if they chose to let us slide over 
tfie edge of a precipice in the mountains, all we could do 



23O TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

was to shut our eyes and trust in Providence. Seven 
times in less than three hours my Kamenoi driver, with 
the assistance of fourteen crazy dogs and a spiked stick, 
turned my pavoska exactly bottom side up, dragged it in 
that position until the hood was full of snow, and then 
left me standing on my head, with my legs in a box and 
my face in a snow-drift, while he took a smoke and calmly 
meditated upon the difficulties of mountain travel and the 
versatility of dog-sledges ! It was enough to make Job 
curse his grandmother ! I threatened him with a revolver, 
and swore indignantly by all the evil spirits in the Korak 
theogony, that if he upset me in that way again I would 
kill him without benefit of clergy, and carry mourning 
and lamentation to the houses of all his relatives. But it 
was of no use. He didn't know enough to be afraid of a 
pistol, and couldn't understand my murderous threats. 
He only just squatted down upon his heels on the snow, 
puffed his cheeks out with smoke, and stared at me in 
stupid amazement, as if I had been some singular species 
of wild animal, which exhibited a strange propensity to 
jabber and gesticulate in the most ridiculous manner 
without any apparent cause. Then, whenever he wanted 
to ice his sledge runners, which was as often as three 
times an hour, he coolly capsized the pavoska, prpoped it 
up with his spiked stick, and I stood on my head while 
he rubbed the runners down with water and a piece of 
deer-skin. This finally drove me to desperation, and I 
succeeded, after a prolonged struggle, in getting out of 
my coffin-shaped box, and seated myself with indignant 
feelings and murderous inclinations by the side of my im- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 23 1 

perturbable driver. Here my unprotected nose began to 
freeze again, and my time, until we reached Shestakova, 
was about equally divided between rubbing that trouble 
some feature with one hand, holding on with the other, 
and picking myself up out of snow-drifts with both. 
f The only satisfaction which I had was in seeing the 
state of aggravation to which the Major was reduced by 
the stupidity and ugliness of his driver. Whenever he 
wanted to go on, the driver insisted upon stopping to take 
a smoke ; when he wanted to smoke, the driver capsized 
him skilfully into a snow-drift ; when he wanted to walk 
down a particularly steep hill, the driver shouted to his 
dogs and carried him to the bottom like an avalanche, at 
the imminent peril of his life ; when he desired to sleep, 
the driver intimated by impudent gestures that he had 
better get out and walk up the side of a mountain ; until, 
finally, the Major called Kerrillof and made him tell the 
Korak distinctly and emphatically, that if he did not obey 
orders and show a better disposition, he would be lashed 
on his sledge, carried to Geezhega, and turned over to 
the Russian Governor for punishment. He paid some 
attention to this ; but all our drivers exhibited an insolent 
rudeness which we had never before met with in Siberia, 
and which was very provoking. The Major declared that 
when our line should be in process of construction and 
he should have force enough to do it, he would teach 
the Kamenoi Koraks a lesson that they would not soon 
forget. 

We travelled all the afternoon over a broken country, 
perfectly destitute of vegetation, which lay between a range 



232 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

of bare white mountains and the sea, and just before dark 
reached the settlement of Shestakova, which was situated 
on the coast, at the mouth of a small wooded stream. 
Stopping here only a few moments to rest our dogs, we 
pushed on to another Korak village called Meekina, ten miles 
farther west, where we finally stopped for the night. 

Meekina was only a copy of Kamenoi on a smallei 
scale. It had the same hour-glass houses, the same coni- 
cal " bologans " elevated on stilts, and the same large 
skeletons of seal-skin "baideras" or ocean canoes were 
ranged in a row on the beach. We climbed up the best- 
looking yourt in the village — over which hung a dead dis- 
embowelled dog, with a wreath of green grass around his 
neck — and slid down the chimney into a miserable room 
filled to suffocation with blue smoke, lighted only by a 
small fire on the earthen floor, and redolent of decayed 
fish and rancid oil. Vushine soon had a tea-kettle over the 
fire, and in twenty, minutes we were seated like cross-leg- 
ged Turks on the raised platform at one end of the yourt, 
munching hard bread and drinking tea, while about twenty 
ugly, savage-looking men squatted in a circle around us 
and watched our motions. The settled Koraks of Pen- 
zhinsk Gulf are unquestionably the worst, ugliest, most 
brutal and degraded natives in all Northeastern Siberia. 
They do not number more than three or four hundred, 
and live in five different settlements along the sea-coast ; 
but they made us more trouble than all the other inhabi- 
tants of Siberia and Kamtchatka together. They led, 
originally, a wandering life like the other Koraks ; but, losing 
their deer by some misfortune or disease, they built them 



T2NT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



233 



selves houses of drift-wood on the sea-coast, settled down, 
and now gain a scanty subsistence by fishing, catching 
seals, and hunting for carcasses of whales which have been 
killed by American whaling vessels, stripped of blubber, 
and then cast ashore by the sea. They are cruel and 
brutal in disposition, insolent to everybody, revengeful, 
dishonest, and untruthful. Everything which the Wander- 
ing Koraks are, they are not. The reasons for the great 
difference between the settled and the Wandering Koraks 
are various. In the first place, the former live in fixed 
villages, which are visited very frequently by the Russian 
traders ; and through these traders and Russian peasants 
they have received many of the worst vices of civilization 
without any of its virtues. To this must be added the 
demoralizing influence of ^American whalers, who have 
given the settled Koraks rum and cursed them with horri- 
ble diseases, which are only aggravated by their diet and 
mode of life. /They have learned from the Russians to 
lie, cheat, and steal ; and from whalers to drink rum and be 
licentious.^) Besides all these vices, they eat the intoxica- 
ting Siberian toadstool in inordinate quantities, and this 
habit alone will in time debase and brutalize any body of 
men to the last degree. From nearly all these demoraliz- 
ing influences the Wandering Koraks are removed by the 
very nature of their life. They spend more of their time 
in the open air, they have healthier and better-balanced 
physical constitutions, they rarely see Russian traders or 
drink Russian vodka, and they are generally temperate, 
chaste, and manly in all their habits. As a natural conse- 
quence they are better men, morally, physically, and intel 



234 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

] actually, than the settled natives ever will or can be. fl 
have very sincere and hearty admiration for many Wandering 
Koraks whom I met occasionally on the great Siberian 
" toondras," but their settled relatives are the worst speci- 
mens of men that I ever saw in all Northern Asia, fronc 
Bearing' s Straits to the Ural Mountains. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

We left Meekina early, November 23d, and started oul 
upon another great snowy plain, where there was no vege- 
tation whatever except a little wiry grass and a few meagre 
patches of trailing pine. 

Ever since leaving Lesnoi I had been studying atten- 
tively the art or science, whichever it be, of dog-driving, 
with the fixed but unexpressed resolution that at some 
future time, when everything should be propitious, I would 
assume the control of my own team, and astonish Dodd 
and the natives with a display of my skill as a " Hour." 

I had found by some experience that these unlettered 
Koraks estimated a man, not so much by what he knew 
which they did not, as by what he knew concerning their 
own special and peculiar pursuits ; and I determined to 
demonstrate, even to their darkened understandings, that 
the knowledge of civilization was universal in its applica- 
tion, and that the white man, notwithstanding his disad- 
vantage in color, could drive dogs better by intuition than 
they could by the aggregated wisdom of centuries ; that 
in fact he could, if necessary, " evolve the principles of 
dog-driving out of the depths of his moral consciousness." 
I must confess, however, that I was not a thorough convert 
to my own ideas ; and I therefore did not disdain to avail 
myself of the results of native experience, as far as they 



2$6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

coincided with my own convictions, as to the nature of 
the true and beautiful in dog-driving. I had watched 
every motion of my Korak driver ; had learned theoretically 
the manner of thrusting the spiked stick between the up- 
rights of the runners into the snow, to act as a brake; 
had committed to memory and practised assiduously the 
guttural monosyllables which meant, in dog-language, 
"right" and "left," as well as many others which meant 
something else, but which I had heard addressed to dogs ; 
and I laid the flattering unction to my soul that I could 
drive as well as a Korak, if not better. To my inexperi- 
enced eye it was as easy as losing money in California 
mining stocks. On this day, therefore, as the road was 
good and the weather propitious. I determined to put my 
ideas, original as well as acquired, to the test of practice. 
I accordingly motioned my Korak driver to take a back 
seat and deliver up to me the insignia of office. I ob- 
served in the expression of his lips, as he handed me the 
spiked stick, a sort o£ latent smile of ridicule, which indi- 
cated a very low estimate of my dog-driving abilities ; but 
I treated it as knowledge should always treat the sneers 
of ignorance — with silent contempt ; and seating myself 
firmly astride the sledge back of the arch, I shouted to 
the dogs, " Noo ! Pashol ! " My voice failed to produce 
the startling effect which I had anticipated. The leader 
— a grim, bluff Nestor of a dog — glanced carelessly over 
his shoulder and very perceptibly slackened his pace. 
This sudden and marked contempt for my authority on 
the part of the dogs did more than all the sneers of the 
Koraks to shake my confidence in my own skill. But my 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 237 

resources were not yet exhausted, and I hurled monosyl- 
lable, •dissyllable, and polysyllable at their devoted heads, 
shouted " Akh ! Te shelma ! Proclataya takaya ! Smatree ! 
Ya tibi dam ! " but all in vain ; the dogs were evidently 
insensible to rhetorical fireworks of this description, and 
manifested their indifference by a- still slower gait. As I 
poured out upon them the last vial of my verbal wrath, 
Dodd, who understood the language which I was so reck- 
lessly using, drove slowly up, and remarked carelessly, 
" You swear pretty well for a beginner." Had the ground 
opened beneath me I should have been less astonished. 
" Swear ! I swear ! You don't mean to say that I've been 
swearing ? " — " Certainly you have, like a pirate." I drop- 
ped my spiked stick in dismay. Were these the principles 
of dog-driving which I had evolved out of the depths of 
my moral consciousness ? They seemed rather to have 
come from the depths of my /amoral ^^consciousness. 
" Why, you reckless reprobate," I exclaimed impressively, 
" didn't you teach me those very words yourself? " — " Cer- 
tainly I did," was the unabashed reply; "but you didn't 
ask me what they meant ; you asked how to pronounce 
them correctly, and I told you. I didn't know but that 
you were making researches in comparative philology — 
trying to prove the unity of the human race by identity 
of oaths, or by a comparison of profanity to demonstrate 
that the Digger Indians are legitimately descended from 
the Chinese. You know that your head (which is a pretty 
good one in other respects) always was full of such non- 
sense." — " Dodd," I observed, with a solemnity which I 
intended should awaken repentance in his hardened sen« 



238 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

sibilities, "I have been betrayed unwittingly into the 
commission of sin ; and as a little more or less won't ma- 
terially alter my guilt, I've as good a notion as ever I had 
to give you the benefit of some of your profane instruc- 
tion." D. laughed derisively and drove on. This little 
episode considerably dampened my enthusiasm, and made 
me very cautious in my use of foreign language. I feared 
the existence of terrific imprecations in the most common 
dog-phrases, and suspected lurking profanity even in the 
monosyllabic "Khta" and " Hoogh," which I had been 
taught to believe meant "right" and "left." The dogs, 
quick to observe any lack of attention on the part of their 
driver, now took encouragement from my silence and ex- 
hibited a doggish propensity to stop and rest, which was 
in direct contravention of all discipline, and which they 
would not have dared to do with an experienced driver. 
Determined to vindicate my authority by more forcible 
measures, I launched my spiked stick like a harpoon at 
the leader, intending to have it fall so that I could pick it 
up as the sledge passed. The dog however dodged it 
cleverly, and it rolled away ten feet from the road. Just 
at that moment three or four wild reindeer bounded out 
from behind a little rise of ground three or four hundred 
yards away, and galloped across the steppe toward a deep 
precipitous ravine, through which ran a branch of the 
Meekina River. The dogs, true to their wolfish instincts, 
started with fierce, excited howls in pursuit. I made a 
frantic grasp at my spiked stick as we rushed past, but 
failed to reach it, and away we went over the toondra to- 
ward the ravine, the sledge half the time on one runner, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 239 

and rebounding from the hard sastroogee or snow-drifu 
with a force which suggested speedy dislocation of one's 
joints. The Korak, with more common sense than I had 
given him credit for, had rolled off the sledge several sec- 
onds before, and a backward glance showed a miscellaneous 
bundle of arms and legs revolving rapidly over the snow 
in my wake. I had no time, however, with ruin staring 
me in the face, to commiserate his misfortune. My ener- 
gies were all devoted to checking the terrific speed with 
which we were approaching the ravine. Without tht 
spiked stick we were perfectly helpless, and in a moment 
we were on the brink. I shut my eyes, clung tightly to 
the arch, and took the plunge. About half-way down the 
descent became suddenly steeper, and the lead-dog swerv- 
ed to one side, bringing the sledge around like the lash 
of a whip, overturning it, and shooting me like a huge 
living meteor through the air into a deep soft drift of snow 
at the bottom. 1 must have fallen at least eighteen feet, 
for I buried myself entirely, with the exception of my 
lower extremities., which, projecting above the snow, kicked 
a faint signal foi rescue. Encumbered with heavy furs, I 
extricated myself with difficulty ; and as I at last emerged 
with three pints of snow down my neck, I saw the round, 
leering face of my late driver grinning at me through the 
bushes on the edge of the bluff. " Ooma,' he hailed. 
Well," replied the snowy figure standing vaist-high in 
the drift. " Amerikanski nyett dobra kiour, eh ? " (Amer- 
ican no good driver). " Nyett sofsem dobra " was the mel- 
ancholy reply as I waded out. The sledge, I found, had 
become entangled in the bushes near me, and the dogs 



Z40 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

were all howling in chorus, nearly wild with the lestiaint. 
I was so far satisfied v/ith ray experiment that I did not 
desire to repeat it at present, and made no objections to 
the Korak' s assuming again his old position. I was fully 
convinced, by the logic of circumstances, that the science 
of dog-driving demanded more careful and earnest con- 
sideration than I had yet given to it ; and I resolved to 
study carefully its elementary principles, as expounded by 
its Korak professors, before attempting again to put my 
own ideas upon the subject into practice. 

As we came out of the ravine upon the open steppe I 
saw the rest of our party a mile away, moving rapidly 
toward the Korak village of Kooeel. We passed Kooeel 
late in the afternoon, and camped for the night in a forest 
of birch, poplar, and aspen trees, on the banks of the 
Paren River. 

We were now only about seventy miles from Geezhega. 
On the following night we reached a small log yourt on a 
branch of the Geezhega River, which had been built there 
by the government to shelter travellers, and Friday morn- 
ing, November 25th, about eleven o'clock, we caught 
sight of the red church steeple which marked the location 
of the Russian settlement of Geezhega. No one who 
has not travelled for three long months through a wilder- 
ness like Kamtchatka, camped out in storms among deso- 
late mountains, slept for three weeks in the smoky tents, 
and yet smokier and dirtier yourts of the Koraks, and 
lived altogether like a perfect savage and barbarian — no 
one who has not experienced this can possibly under- 
stand with what joyful hearts we welcomed that red 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 24 J 

church steeple, and the civilization of which it was the sign. 
For almost a month we had slept every night on the 
ground or the snow ; had never seen a chair, a table, a 
bed, or a mirror ; had never been undressed night or day ; 
and had washed our faces only three or four times in an 
equal number of weeks ! We were grimy and smoky 
from climbing up and down Korak chimneys ; our hair 
was long and matted around our ears ; the skin had peeled 
from our noses and cheek-bones where they had been 
frozeu ; our cloth coats and pantaloons were gray with 
reindeer hairs from our fur "kookhlankas ; " and we pre- 
sented, generally, as wild and neglected an appearance as 
men could present, and still retain any lingering traces of 
better days. We had no time or inclination, however, to " fix 
up ; " our dogs dashed at a mad gallop into the village with 
a great outcry, which awakened a responsive chorus of 
howls from two or three hundred other canine throats ; 
our drivers shouted "khta! khta ! hoog ! hoog ! " and 
raised clouds of snow with their spiked sticks as we 
rushed through the streets, and the whole population 
came running to their doors to ascertain the cause of 
the infernal tumult. One after another our fifteen sledges 
went careering through the village, and finally drew up 
before a large, comfortable house, with double glass win- 
dows, where arrangements had been made, Kerrillof said, 
for our reception. Hardly had we entered a large, neatly 
swept and scrubbed room, and thrown off our heavy 
frosty furs, than the door again opened, and in rushed a 
little impetuous, quick-motioned man, with a heavy au- 
burn moustache, and light hair cut short all over his head, 



242 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

dressed in neat broadcloth coat and pantaloons and p 
spotless linen shirt, with seal rings on his fingers, a plain 
gold chain at his vest button, and a cane. We recognized 
him at once as the "Ispravnik," or Russian Governor. 
Dodd and I made a sudden attempt to escape from the 
room, but we were too late, and saluting our visitor with 
" zdrastvuitia," we sat down awkwardly enough on our 
chairs, rolled our smoky hands up in our scarlet and yel- 
low cotton handkerchiefs, and, with a vivid consciousness 
of our dirty faces and generally disreputable appearance, 
tried to look self-possessed, and to assume the dignity 
which befitted officers of the great Russo-American Tele- 
graph Expedition ! It was a pitiable failure. We could 
not succeed in looking like anything but Wandering 
Koraks in reduced circumstances. The Ispravnik, how- 
ever, did not seem to notice anything unusual in our ap- 
pearance, but rattled away with an incessant fire of quick, 
nervous questions, such as " When did you leave Petro- 
pavlovski ? Are you just from America ? I sent a Cos- 
sack. Did you meet him ? How did you cross the 
toondras ; with the Koraks ? Akh ! those proclatye 
Koraks ! Any news from St. Petersburg ? You must 
come over and dine with me. How long will you stay in 
town ? You can take a bath right after dinner. Ay ! 
loodee ! (very loud and peremptory.) Go and tell my 
Ivan to heat up the bath quick ! Akh ! Choit yeekh 
vazmee ! " and the restless little man finally stopped from 
sheer exhaustion, and began pacing nervously across the 
room, while the Major related our adventures, gave him 
the latest news from Russia, explained our plans, the ob« 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 243 

ject of our expedition, told him of the murder of Lincoln, 
the end of the Rebellion, the latest news from the French 
invasion of Mexico, the gossip of the Imperial Court, and 
no end of other news which had been old with us for six 
months, but of which the poor exiled Ispravnik had never 
heard a word. He had had no communication with 
Russia in almost eleven months. After insisting again 
upon our coining over to his house immediately to dine, 
he bustled out of the room, and gave us an opportunity 
to wash and dress. 

Two hours afterward, in all the splendor of blue coats, 
'brass buttons, and shoulder-straps, with shaven faces, 
starched shirts, and polished leather boots, the " First Si- 
berian Exploring Party" marched over to the Ispravnik' s 
to dine. The Russian peasants whom we met instinct- 
ively took off their frosty fur hoods and gazed wonder- 
ingly at us as we passed, as if wi had mysteriously drop- 
ped down from some celestial sphere. No one would 
have recognized in us the dirty, smoky, ragged vagabonds 
who had entered the village two hours before. The grubs 
had developed into blue and golden butterflies ! We 
found the Ispravnik waiting for us in a pleasant, spacious 
room furnished with all the luxuries of a civilized home. 
The walls were papered and ornamented with costly pic 
tures and engravings, the windows were hung with cur- 
tains, the floor was covered with a soft, brightly-colored 
carpet, a large walnut writing-desk occupied one corner 
of the room, a\r ->sewood melodeon the other, and in the 
centre stooc the dining-table, covered with a fresh cloth, 
polished china, and glittering silver. We were fairly 



244 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

dazzled at the sight of so much unusual and unexpected 
magnificence. After the inevitable " fifteen drops " of 
brandy, and the lunch of smoked fish, rye bread, and ca- 
viar, which always precede a Russian dinner, we took 
seats at the table and spent an hour and a half in getting 
through the numerous courses of cabbage soup, salmon 
pie, venison cutlets, game, small meat pies, pudding and 
pastry, which were successively set before us, and in dis- 
cussing the news of all the world, from the log villages of 
Kamtchatka to the imperial palaces of Moscow and St. 
Petersburg. Our hospitable host then ordered cham- 
pagne, and over tall, slender glasses of cool beaded 
Cliquot we meditated upon the vicissitudes of Siberian 
life. Yesterday we sat on the ground in a Korak tent 
and ate reindeer-meat out of a wooden trough with our 
lingers, and to-day we dined with the Russian Governor, 
in a luxurious house, upon venison cutlets, plum pudding, 
and champagne. With the exception of a noticeable but 
restrained inclination on the part of Dodd and myself to 
curl up our legs and sit on the floor, there was nothing I be- 
lieve in our behavior to betray the barbarous freedom of the 
Ufe which we had so recently lived, and the demoralizing 
character of the influences to which we had been subjected. 
We handled our knives and forks, and leisurely sipped 
our champagne with a grace which would have excited 
the envy of Lord Chesterfield himself. But it was hard 
work. No sooner did we return to our quarters than we 
threw off our uniform coats, spread our bearskins on the 
flooi, and sat down upon them with crossed legs, to enjoy 
a comfortable smoke in the good old free-and-easy style, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 245 

If our faces had only been just a little dirty we should 
have been perfectly happy ! 

The next ten days of our life at Geezhega were passed 
in comparative idleness. We walked out a little when 
the weather was not too cold, received formal calls from 
the Russian merchants of the place, visited the Ispravnik 
and drank his delicious " flower-tea" and smoked his 
paperoses in the evening, and indemnified ourselves foi 
three months of rough life by enjoying to the utmost 
such mild pleasures as the little village afforded. This 
pleasant, aimless existence, however, was soon terminated 
by an order from the Major to prepare for the winter's 
campaign, and hold ourselves in readiness to start for the 
Arctic Circle or the west coast of the Okhotsk Sea at a 
moment's notice. lie had determined to explore a route 
for our proposed line from Behring's Straits to the Amoor 
River before spring should open, and there was no time 
to be lost. The information which we could gather at 
Geezhega with regard to the interior of the country was 
scanty, indefinite, and unsatisfactory. According to 
native accounts, there were only two settlements between 
the Okhotsk Sea and Behring's Straits, and the nearest of 
these — Penzhina — was four hundred versts distant. The 
intervening country consisted of great moss " toondras," 
impassable in summer, and perfectly destitute of timber ; 
and that portion of it which lay north-east of the last set- 
tlement was utterly uninhabitable on account of the ab- 
sence of wood. /A Russian officer by the name of Phil« 
lippeus had attempted to explore it in the winter of i860, 
but had returned unsuccessful, in a starving and exhausted 



246 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

condition. In the whole distance of eight hundred versta 
between Geezhega and the mouth of the Anadyr River 
there were said to be only four or five places where tim- 
ber could be found large enough for telegraph poles, and 
over most of the route there was no wood except occa- 
sional patches of trailing pine. A journey from Geezhega 
to the last settlement of Anadyrsk, on the Arctic Circle, 
would occupy from twenty to thirty days, according to 
weather, and beyond that point there was no possibility 
of going under any circumstances. The region west of 
Geezhega, along the coast of the Okhotsk Sea, was re- 
ported to be better, but very rugged and mountainous, 
and heavily timbered with pine and larch. The village of 
Okhotsk, eight hundred versts distant, could be reached 
on dog-sledges in about a month. This, in brief, was all 
the information we could get, and it did not inspire us 
with very much confidence in the ultimate success of our 
enterprise. I realized for the first time the magnitude of 
the task which the Russo-American Telegraph Company 
had undertaken. We were "in for it," however, now, 
and our first duty was obviously to go through the 
country, ascertain its extent and nature, and find out what 
facilities, if any, it afforded for the construction of our 
line. 

The Russian settlements of Okhotsk and Geezhega 
divided the country between Behring's Straits and the 
Amoor River into three nearly equal sections, of which 
two were mountainous and wooded, and one compara- 
tively level and almost barren. The first of these sec- 
tions, between the Amoor and Okhotsk, had been as. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 24 J 

signed to Mahood and Bush, and we presumed that they 
were already engaged in its exploration. The other tw<J 
sections, comprising all the region between Okhotsk and 
Behring's Straits, were to be divided between the Major, 
Dodd, and myself. In view of the supposed desolation 
of the unexplored territory immediately west of Behring's 
Straits, it was thought best to leave it unsurveyed until 
spring, and perhaps until another season. The promised 
co-operation of the Anadyr River party had failed us, and 
without more men, the Major did not consider it expe- 
dient to undertake the exploration of a region which pre- 
sented so many and so great obstacles to mid-winter 
travel. The distance which remained to be traversed, 
therefore, was only about fourteen hundred versts from 
Okhotsk to the Russian outpost of Anadyrsk, just south 
of the Arctic Circle. After some deliberation the Major 
concluded to send Dodd and me with a party of natives 
to Anadyrsk, and to start himself on dog-sledges for the 
settlement of Okhotsk, where he expected to meet 
Mahood and Bush. In this way it was hoped that we 
should be able in the course of five months to make a rough 
but tolerably accurate survey of nearly the whole route of 
the line. The provisions which we had brought from Petro- 
pavlovski had all been used up, with the exception of 
some tea, sugar, and a few cans of preserved beef; but 
we obtained at Geezhega two or three poods of black 
rye bread, four or five frozen reindeer, some salt, and an 
abundant supply of "yookala" or dried fish. These, 
with some tea and sugar, and a few cakes of frozen milk, 
made up our store of provisions. We provided ourselvef 



248 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

also \\ith six or eight poods of Circassian leaf tobacco, 
to be used instead of money; divided equally our little 
store of beads, pipes, knives, and trading goods, pur- 
chased new suits of furs throughout, and made every pre- 
paration for three or four months of camp-life in an Arctic 
climate. The Russian Governor ordered six of his Cos- 
sacks to transport Dodd and I on dog- sledges as far as 
the Korak village of Shestakova, and sent word to Pen- 
zhina by the returning Anadyrsk people to have three or 
four "men and dog-teams at the former place by Dec. 
20th, ready to carry us on to Penzhina and Anadyrsk. 
We engaged an old and experienced Cossack named 
Gregorie Zinevief as guide and Chookchee interpreter, 
hired a young Russian called Yagor as cook and aide-de* 
camp (in the literal sense), packed our stores on our 
sledges and secured them with lashings of seal-skin 
thongs, and by December 13th were ready to take the 
field. That evening the Major delivered to us our. in- 
structions. They were simply, to follow the regular 
sledge road to Anadyrsk via Shestakova and Penzhina, to 
ascertain what facilities it offered in the way of timber 
and soil for the construction of a telegraph line, to set the 
natives at work cutting poles at Penzhina and Anadyrsk, 
and to make side explorations where possible in search 
of timbered rivers connecting Penzhinsk Gulf with 
Beh ring's Sea. Late in the spring we were to return to 
Geezhega with all the information which we could gather 
relative to the country between that point and the Arctic 
Circle. The Major himself would remain at Geezhega 
until about December 1 7th, and then leave on dog-sledges 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 249 

with Vushine and a small party of Cossacks for the 
settlement of Okhotsk. If he made a junction with 
Mahood and Bush at that place he would return at 
once, and meet us again at Geezhega by the ist of 
April, 1866. 

n* 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

ARCTIC TRAVELLING IN WINTER. 

The morning of December 13th dawned clear, cold ami 
still, with a temperature of thirty-one degrees below zero r 
but as the sun did not rise until half-past ten, it was near- 
ly noon before we could get our drivers together, and our 
dogs harnessed for a start. Our little party of ten men 
presented quite a novel and picturesque appearance in 
their gayly embroidered fur coats, red sashes, and yellow 
fox-skin hoods, as they assembled in a body before our 
house to bid good-by to the Ispravnik and the Major. 
Eight heavily loaded sledges were ranged in a line in 
front of the door, and almost a hundred dogs were 
springing frantically against their harnesses, and raising 
deafening howls of impatience, as we came out of the 
house into the still, frosty atmosphere. We bade every 
body good-by, received a hearty " God bless you, boys ! " 
from the Major, and were off in a cloud of flying snow, 
which stung our faces like burning sparks of fire. Old 
Paderin, the chief of the Geezhega Cossacks, with white 
frosty hair and beard, stood out in front of his little red log 
house as we passed, and waved us a last good-by with his 
fur hood as we swept out upon the great level steppe be 
hind the town. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



251 



It was just mid-day ; but the sun, although at its great- 
est altitude, glowed like a red ball of fire low down in the 
southern horizon, and a peculiar gloomy twilight hung 
over the white wintry landscape. I could not overcome 
the impression that the sun was just rising and that it 
would soon be broad day. A white ptarmigan now and 
then flew up with a loud whir before us, uttered a harsh 
" querk, querk, querk" of affright, and sailing a few rods 
away, settled upon the snow and became suddenly invis- 
ible. A few magpies sat motionless in the thickets of 
trailing pine as we passed, but their feathers were ruffled 
up around their heads, and they seemed chilled and stu- 
pefied by the intense cold. The distant blue belt of tim- 
ber along the Geezhega river wavered and trembled in 
its outlines as if seen through currents of heated air, and 
the white ghost-like mountains thirty miles away to the 
southward were thrown up and distorted by refraction 
into a thousand airy, fantastic shapes which melted imper- 
ceptibly one into another, like a series of dissolving views. 
Every feature of the scenery was strange, weird, Arctic. 
The red sun rolled slowly along the southern horizon, un- 
til it seemed to rest on a white snowy peak far away in 
the southwest, and then, while we were yet expecting day 
it suddenly disappeared and the gloomy twilight deepened 
gradually into night. Only three hours had elapsed since 
sunrise, and yet stars of the first magnitude could already 
be plainly distinguished. 

We stopped for the night at the house of a Russian 
peasant who lived on the bank of the Geezhega River, 
about fifteen versts east of the settlement. While we were 



£$2 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

drinking tea a special messenger arrived from the village, 
bringing two frozen blueberry pies as a parting token of 
regard from the Major, and a last souvenir of civilization. 
Pretending to fear that something might happen to these 
delicacies if we should attempt to carry them with us, 
Dodd, as a precautionary measure, ate one of them up to 
the last blueberry ; and rather than have him sacrifice 
himself to a mistaken idea of duty by trying to eat the 
other, I attended to its preservation myself and put it for- 
ever beyond the reach of accidental contingencies. 

On the following day we reached the little log yourt on 
the Malmofka, where we had spent one night on our way 
to Geezhega ; and as the cold was still intense we were 
glad to avail ourselves again of its shelter, and huddle 
around the warm fire which Yagor kindled on a sort of clay 
altar in the middle of the room. There was not space 
enough on the rough plank floor to accommodate all our 
party, and our men built a huge fire of tamarack logs out- 
side, hung over their tea-kettles, thawed out their frosty 
beards, ate dry fish, sang jolly Russian songs, and made 
themselves so boisterously happy, that we were tempted 
to give up the luxury of a roof for the sake of sharing in 
their out-door amusements and merriment. Our thermo- 
meters, however, marked 35 below zero, and we did not 
venture out of doors except when an unusually loud burst 
of laughter announced some stupendous Siberian joke 
which we thought would be worth hearing. Th e atmos- 
phere outside seemed to be just cool enough to exert an 
inspiriting influence upon our lively Cossacks, but it was 
altogether too bracing for unaccustomed American con- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 253 

stitutions. With a good fire, however, and plenty of hoi 
tea, we succeeded in making ourselves very comfortable in- 
side the yourt, and passed away the long evening in smok- 
ing Ciicassian tobacco and pine bark, singing American 
songs, telling stories, and quizzing our good-natured but 
unsophisticated Cossack MeronerT. 

It was quite late .when we finally crawled into our fur 
bags to sleep ; but long afterward we could hear the songs, 
jokes, and laughter of our drivers as they sat around the 
camp-fire, and told funny stories of Siberian travel. 

We were up on the following morning long before day- 
light ; and, after a hasty breakfast of black bread, dried 
fish, and tea, we harnessed our dogs, wet down our sledge- 
runners with water from the tea-kettle to cover them with 
a coating of ice, packed up our camp equipage, and, leav- 
ing the shelter of the tamarack forest around the yourt, 
drov^ out upon the great snowy Sahara which lies be- 
tweei, the Malmof ka River and Penzhinsk Gulf. It was a 
land of desolation. A great level steppe, as boundless to 
the weary eye as the ocean itself, stretched away in every 
direction to the far horizon, without a single tree or bush 
to relieve its white, snowy surface. Nowhere did we see 
any sign of animal or vegetable life, any suggestion of 
summer or flowers or warm sunshine, to brighten the 
dreary waste of storm-drifted snow. 

White, cold, and silent, it lay before us like a vast 
frozen ocean, lighted up faintly by the slender crescent 
of the waning moon in the east, and the weird blue 
streamers of the Aurora, which went racing swiftly back 
and forth along the northern horizon. Even when the sun 



254 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

rose, huge and fiery, in a haze of frozen moisture at the 
south, it did not seem to infuse any warmth or life into the 
bleak wintry landscape. It only drowned, in a dull red 
glare, the blue, tremulous streamers of the Aurora, and 
the white radiance of the moon and stars tinged the snow 
with a faint color like a stormy sunset, and lighted up a 
splendid mirage in the northwest which startled us with 
its solemn mockery of familiar scenes. The wand of the 
Northern Enchanter touched the barren snowy steppe, 
and it suddenly became a blue, tropical lake, upon whose 
distant shore rose the walls, domes, and slender minarets 
of a vast oriental city. Masses of luxuriant foliage 
seemed to overhang the clear blue water, and to be re- 
flected in its depths, while the white walls above just 
caught the first flush of the rising sun. Never was the 
illusion of summer in winter, of life in death, more pal- 
pable or more perfect. One almost instinctively glanced 
around to assure himself, by the sight of familiar objects, 
that it was not a dream ; but as his eye turned again to 
the northwest across the dim blue lake, the vast tremu- 
lous outlines of the mirage still confronted him in their 
unearthly beauty, and the " cloud-capped towers and gor- 
geous palaces " seemed, by their mysterious solemnity, to 
rebuke the doubt which would ascribe them to a dream. 
The bright apparition faded, glowed, and faded again into 
indistinctness, and from its ruins rose two colossal pillars 
sculptured from rose quartz, which gradually united their 
capitals and formed a Titanic arch like the grand portal 
of heaven. This, in turn, melted into an extensive for- 
tress, with massive bastions and buttresses, flanking tow 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 255 

ers, and deep embrasures, and salient and re-entering 
angles, whose shadows and perspective were as natural as 
reality itself. Nor was it only at a distance that these 
deceptive mirages seemed to be formed. A crow, stand 
ing upon the snow at a distance of perhaps two hundred 
yards, was exaggerated and distorted beyond recognition ; 
and once, having lingered a little behind the rest of th& 
party, I was startled at seeing a long line of shadowy dog- 
sledges moving swiftly through the air a short distance 
ahead, at a height of eight or ten feet from the ground. 
The mock sledges were inverted in position, and the 
mock dogs trotted along with their feet in the air ; but 
their outlines were almost as clear as those of the real 
sledges and real dogs underneath. This curious phenome- 
non lasted only a moment, but it was succeeded by others 
equally strange, until at last we lost faith in our eyesight 
entirely, and would not believe in the existence of any- 
thing unless we could touch it with our hands. Every 
bare hillock or dark object on the snow was a nucleus 
around which were formed the most deceptive images, 
and two or three times we started out with our rifles in 
pursuit of wolves or black foxes, which proved, upon 
closer inspection, to be nothing but crows. I had never 
before known the light and atmosphere to be so favorable 
to refraction, and had never been so deceived in the size, 
shape, and distance of objects on the snow. 

The thermometer at noon marked — 35 , and at sunset 
it was — 38 , and sinking. We had seen no wood since 
leaving the yourt on the Malmolka River, and, not dar- 
ing to camp without a fire, we travelled for five hours 



256 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

after dark, guided only by the stars and a bluish Aurora 
which was playing away in the north. Under the influ- 
ence of the intense cold, frost formed in great quantities 
upon everything which was touched by our breaths 
Beards became stiff tangled masses of frozen iron wire, 
eyelids grew heavy with long white rims of frost, and 
froze together when we winked, and our dogs, enveloped 
in dense clouds of steam, looked like snowy polar wolves. 
Only by running constantly beside our sledges could we 
keep any sensation of life in our feet. About eight o'clock 
a few scattered trees loomed up darkly against the eastern 
sky, and a joyful shout from our leading drivers announced 
the discovery of wood. We had reached a small stream 
called the Ooseenova, seventy-five versts eastofGeezhega, 
in the very middle of the great steppe. It was like com- 
ing to an island after having been long at sea. Our dogs 
stopped and curled themselves up into little round balls 
on the snow, as if conscious that the long day's journey 
was ended, while our drivers proceeded to make rapidly 
and systematically a Siberian half-faced camp. Three 
sledges were drawn up together, so as to make a little 
semi-enclosure about ten feet square ; the snow was all 
shovelled out of the interior, and banked up around the 
three closed sides, like a snow fort, and a huge fire of 
trailing pine branches was built at the open end. The 
bottom of this little snow-cellar was then strewn to a 
depth of three or four inches with twigs of willow and 
alder, shaggy bear-skins were spread down to make a warm, 
soft carpet, and our fur sleeping-bags arranged for the 
night. Upon a small table extemporized out of a candle 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 257 

box, which stood in the centre, Yagor soon placed two 
cups of steaming hot tea and a couple of dried fish. 
Then stretching ourselves out in luxurious style upon oui 
bear- skin carpet, with our feet to the fire and our back? 
against pillows, we smoked, drank tea, and told stories 
in perfect comfort. After supper the drivers piled dry 
branches of trailing pine upon the fire until it sent up a 
column of hot ruddy flame ten feet in height, and then 
gathering in a picturesque group around the blaze, they 
sang for hours the wild melancholy songs of the Kam- 
tchadals, and told never-ending stories of hardship and 
adventure on the great steppes and along the coast of the 
"icy sea." At last the great constellation of Orion 
marked bed-time. Amid a tumult of snarling and fight- 
ing the dogs were fed their daily allowance of one dried fish 
each, fur stockings, moist with perspiration, were taken 
off and dried by the fire, and putting on our heaviest fur 
" kookhlankas," we crawled feet first into our bear-skin 
bags, pulled them up over our heads, and slept. 

A camp in the middle of a clear, dark winter's night 
presents a strange, wild appearance. I was awakened, 
soon after midnight, by cold feet, and, raising myself upon 
one elbow, I pushed my head out of my frosty fur bag to 
see by the stars what time it was. The fire had died 
away to a red heap of smouldering embers. There was 
just light enough to distinguish the dark outlines of the 
loaded sledges, the fur-clad forms of our men, lying here 
and there in groups about the fire, and the frosty dogs, 
curled up into a hundred little hairy balls upon the snow. 
Away beyond he limits of the camp stretched the deso* 



258 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

late steppe in a series of long snowy undulations, which 
blended gradually into one great white frozen ocean, and 
were lost in the distance and darkness of night. High 
over head, in a sky which was almost black, sparkled the 
bright constellations of Orion and the Pleiades — the 
celestial clocks which marked the long, weary hours be- 
tween sunrise and sunset. The blue mysterious stream- 
ers of the Aurora trembled in the north, now shooting up 
in clear bright lines to the zenith, then waving back and 
forth in great majestic curves over the silent camp, as if 
warning back the adventurous traveller from the unknown 
regions around the pole. The silence was profound, 
oppressive. Nothing but the pulsating of the blood in 
my ears, and the heavy breathing of the sleeping men at 
my feet, broke the universal lull. \. Suddenly there rose 
upon the still night-air a long, faint, wailing cry like that 
of a human being in the last extremity of suffering. Gra- 
dually it swelled and deepened until it seemed to fill the 
whole atmosphere with its volume of mournful sound, 
dying away at last into a low, despairing moan. 'It was 
the signal-howl of a Siberian dog ; but so wild and un- 
earthly did it seem in the stillness of the Arctic midnight, 
that it sent the startled blood bounding through my veins 
to my very finger-ends. In a moment the mournful cry 
was taken up by another dog, upon a higher key — two or 
three more joined in, then ten, twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, 
until the whole pack of a hundred dogs howled one in- 
fernal chorus together, making the air fairly tremble with 
sound, as if from the heavy bass of a great organ. For 
fully a minute heaven and earth seemed to be filled with 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 259 

yelling, shrieking fiends. Then one by one they began 
gradually to drop off, the unearthly tumult grew momen- 
tarily fainter and fainter, until at last it ended as it began, 
in one long, inexpressibly melancholy wail, and all wa? 
still. One or two of our men moved restlessly in theii 
sleep, as if the mournful howls had blended unpleasantly 
with their dreams ; but no one awoke, and a death-like 
silence again pervaded heaven and earth. Suddenly the 
Aurora shone out with increased brilliancy, and its wav- 
ing swords swept back and forth in great semicircles 
across the dark starry sky, and lighted up the snowy 
stepje with transitory flashes of colored radiance, as if 
the gates of heaven were opening and closing upon the 
dazzling brightness of the celestial city. Presently it 
faded away again to a faint diffused glow in the north, 
and one pale-green streamer, slender and bright as the 
spear of Ithuriel, pushed slowly up toward the zenith 
until it touched with its translucent point the jewelled 
belt of Orion; then it, too, faded and vanished, and 
nothing but a bank of pale white mist on the northern 
horizon showed the location of the celestial armory 
whence the Arctic spirits drew the gleaming swords and 
lances which they shook and brandished nightly over the 
lonely Siberian steppes. Crawling back into my bag as 
the Aurora disappeared, I fell asleep, and did not wake 
until near morning. With the first streak of dawn the 
camp began to show signs of animation. The dogs 
crawled out of the deep holes which their warm bodies 
had melted in the snow ; the Cossacks poked their heads 
out of their frosty fur coats, and whipped off with little 



260 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

sticks the mass of frost which had accumulated around 
their breathing-holes. A fire was built, tea boiled, and 
we crawled out of our sleeping-bags to shiver around the 
fire and eat a hasty breakfast of rye-bread, dried fish, and 
tea. In twenty minutes the dogs were harnessed, sledges 
packed, and runners covered with ice, and one after an- 
other we drove away at a brisk trot from the smoking 
fire, and began another day's journey across the barren 
steppe. 

In this monotonous routine of riding, camping, and 
sleeping on the snow, day after day slowly passed until, 
on December 20th, we arrived at the settled Korak vil- 
lage of Shestakova, near the head of Penzhinsk Gulf. 
From this point our Geezhega Cossacks were to return, 
and here we were to wait until the expected sledges from 
Penzhina should arrive. We lowered our bedding, pil- 
lows, camp equipage, and provisions, down through the 
chimney-hole of the largest yourt in the small village, 
arranged them as tastefully as possible on the wide 
wooden platform which extended out from the wall on 
one side, and made ourselves as comfortable as darkness, 
smoke, cold, and dirt would permit. 



CHAP TER XXIV. 

Our short stay at Shestakova, while waiting for the 
Penzhina sledges, was dismal and lonesome beyond ex- 
pression. It began to storm furiously about noon on the 
20th, and the violent wind swept up such tremendous 
clouds of snow from the great steppe north of the village, 
that the whole earth was darkened as if by an eclipse, 
and the atmosphere, to a height of a hundred feet from 
the ground, was literally packed with a driving mist of 
white snow-flakes. I ventured to the top of the chimney- 
hole once, but I was nearly blown over the edge of the 
yourt, and, blinded and choked by snow, I hastily re- 
treated down the chimney, congratulating myself that I 
was not obliged to lie out all day on some desolate plain, 
exposed to the fury of such a storm. To keep out the 
snow, we were obliged to extinguish the fire and shut up 
the chimney hole with a sort of wooden trap-door, so 
that we were left to total darkness and a freezing atmos- 
phere. We lighted candles and stuck them against the 
black smoky logs above our heads with melted grease, so 
that we could see to read ; but the cold was so intense 
that we were finally compelled to g'.ve up the idea of 
literary amusement, and putting on fur coats and hoods. 
we crawled into our bags to try and sleep away the day 
Shut up in a dark half-underground dungeon, with a tem« 



262 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

perature ten degrees below the freezing-point, we had no 
other resource. 

It is a mystery to me how human beings with any feel- 
ing at all can be satisfied to live in such abominable, detes- 
table houses as those of the settled Koraks. They have 
not one solitary redeeming feature. They are entered 
through the chimney, lighted by the chimney, and venti- 
lated by the chimney ; the sunshine falls into them only 
once a year — in June ; they are cold in winter, close and 
uncomfortable in summer, and smoky all the time. They 
are pervaded by a smell of rancid oil and decaying fish ; 
their logs are black as jet and greasy with smoke, and 
their earthen floors are an indescribable mixture of rein- 
deer's hairs and filth dried and trodden hard. They have 
no furniture except wooden bowls of seal oil, in which 
burn fragments of moss, and black wooden troughs which 
are alternately used as dishes and as seats. Sad is the 
lot of children born in such a place. Until they are old 
enough to climb up the chimney-pole they never see the 
outside world. 

The weather on the day after our arrival at Shestakova 
was much better, and our Cossack Meroneff, who was on 
his way back to Tigil, bade us good-by, and started with 
two or three natives for Kamenoi. Dodd and I managed 
to pass away the day by drinking tea eight or ten times 
simply as an amusement, reading an odd volume of 
Cooper's novels which we had picked up at Geezhega, 
and strolling along the high bluffs over the gulf with our 
rifles in search of foxes. Soon after dark, just as we were 
diinking tea in final desperation for the seventh time, 






TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 263 

our dogs who were tied around the yourt set up a general 
howl, and Yagor came sliding down the chimney in the 
most reckless and disorderly manner, with the news thai 
a Russian Cossack had just arrived from Petropavlovski, 
bringing letters from the Major. Dodd sprang up in 
great excitement, kicked over the tea-kettle, dropped his 
cup and saucer, and made a frantic rush for the chimney- 
pole ; but before he could reach it we saw somebody's 
legs coming down into the yourt, and in a moment a tall 
figure in a spotted reindeer-skin coat appeared, crossed 
himself carefully two or three times, as if in gratitude for his 
safe arrival, and then turned to us with the Russian saluta- 
tion " zdrastvuitia." — "At Kooda ?" — where from, deman- 
ded Uodd, quickly. " From Petropavlovski with letters for 
the Myoor," was the reply ; " three telegraph ships have 
been there, and I am sent with important letters from the 
American Nechalnik ; I have been thirty-nine days and 
nights on the road from Petropavlovski." This was im- 
portant news. Col. Bulkley had evidently touched at the 
southern end of Kamtchatka on his return from Behring's 
Sea, and the letters brought by the courier would un- 
doubtedly explain why he had not landed the party at the 
mouth of the Anadyr River, as he had intended. I felt a 
strong temptation to open the letters ; but not thinking 
that they could have any bearing upon my movements, 
I finally concluded to send them on without a moment's 
delay to Geezhega, in the faint hope that the Major had 
not yet left there for Okhotsk. In twenty minutes the 
Cossack was gone, and we were left to form all sorts of 
wild conjectures as to the contents of the letters, and the 



264 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

movements of the parties which Col. Bulkley had carried 
up to Behring's Straits. I regretted a hundred times that 
I had not opened the letters, and found out to a certainty 
that the Anadyr River party had not been landed. But 
il was too late now, and we could only hope that the 
courier would overtake the Major before he had started 
from Geezhega, and that the latter would send somebody 
to us at Anadyrsk with the news. 

There were no signs yet of the Penzhina sledges, and 
we spent another night and another long dreary day in 
the smoky yourt ar Shestakova, waiting for transportation. 
Late in the evening of Dec. 2 2d, Yagor, who acted in 
the capacity of sentinel, came down the chimney with 
another sensation. He had heard the howling of dogs 
in the direction of Penzhina. We went up on the roof of 
the yourt and listened for several minutes, but hearing 
nothing but the wind, we concluded that Yagor had 
either been mistaken, or that a pack of wolves had 
howled in the valley east of the settlement. Yagor how- 
ever was right ; he had heard dogs on the Penzhina road, 
and in less than ten minutes the long-expected sledges 
drew up, amid general shouting and barking, before our 
yourt. In the course of conversation with the new ar- 
rivals, I thought I understood one of the Penzhina men 
to say something about a party who had mysteriously ap- 
peared near the mouth of the Anadyr River, and who 
were building a house there as if with the intention of 
spending the winter. I did not yet understand Russian 
very well, but I guessed at once that the long-talked of 
Anadyr River party had been landed, and springing up in 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 265 

considerable excitement, I called Dodd to interp:ec. It 
seemed from all the information which the Penzhina men 
could give us that a small party of Americans had myste- 
riously appeared, early in the winter, near the mouth of 
the Anadyi. and had commenced to build a house of 
diift-wood and a few boards which had been landed from 
the vessel in which they came. What their intentions 
were, who they were, or how long they intended to stay, 
no one knew, as the report came through bands of Wan- 
dering Chookchees, who had never seen the Americans 
themselves, but who had heard of them from others. 
The news had been passed along from one encampment 
of Chookchees to another until it had finally reached 
Penzhina, and had thus been brought on to us at Shesta- 
kova, more than five hundred miles from the place where 
the Americans were said to be. We could hardly believe 
that Col. Bulkley had landed an exploring party in the 
desolate region south of Behring's Straits, at the very be- 
ginning of an Arctic winter ; but what could Americans 
be doing there, if they did not belong to our expedition ? 
It was not a place which civilized men would be likely 
to select for a winter residence, unless they had in view 
some very important object. The nearest settlement — 
Anadyrsk — was almost two hundred and fifty miles dis- 
tant ; the country along the lower Anadyr was said to be 
wholly destitute of wood, and inhabited only by roving 
bands of Chookchees, and a party landed there without 
an interpreter would have no means of communicating 
even with these wild, lawless natives, or of obtaining any 

means whatever of transportation. If there were any 
12 



«66 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Americans there, they were certainly in a very urplea 
sant situation. 

Dodd and I talked the matter over until nearly mid- 
night, and finally concluded that upon our arrival at Ana- 
dyrsk we would make up a strong party of experienced 
natives, take thirty days' provisions, and push through to 
the Pacific Coast on dog-sledges in search of these myste- 
rious Americans. It would be an adventure just novel 
and hazardous enough to be interesting, and if we suc- 
ceeded in reaching the mouth of the Anadyr in winter, we 
would do something never before accomplished and 
never but once attempted. With this conclusion we 
crawled into our fur bags and dreamed that we were 
starting for the open Polar Sea in search of Sir John 
Franklin. 

On the morning of Dec. 23d, as soon as it was light 
enough to see, we loaded our tobacco, provisions, tea, su 
gar, and trading goods upon the Penzhina sledges, and start- 
ed up the shallow bushy valley of the Shestakova Creek to- 
ward a mountainous ridge, a spur of the great Stanavoi 
range, in which the stream had its source. We crossed 
the mountain early in the afternoon, at a height of about 
a thousand feet, and slid swiftly down its northern slope 
into a narrow valley, which opened upon the great 
steppes which bordered the river Aklan. The weather 
was clear and not very cold, but the snow in the valley 
was deep and soft, and our progress was provokingly 
slow. We had hoped to reach the Aklan by night, but 
the day was so short and the road so bad tlut we trav- 
elled five hours after dark, and then had to stop ten 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 267 

vents south of the river. We were rewarded, however, by 
seeing two very fine mock moons, and by finding a mag- 
nificent patch of trailing pine, which furnished us with dry 
wood enough for a glorious camp-fire. The curious tree 
or bush known to the Russians as " Kedrevnik," and ren 
dered in the English translation of Vrangel's Travels as 
" trailing cedar," is one of the most singular productions 
of Siberia. I hardly know whether to call it a tree, a 
bush, or a vine, for it partakes more or less of the char- 
acteristics of all three, and yet does not look much like 
any of them. It resembles as much as anything a dwarf 
pine tree, with a remarkably gnarled, crooked, and con- 
torted trunk, growing horizontally like a neglected vine 
along the ground, and sending up perpendicular branches 
through the snow. It has the needles and cones of the 
common white pine, but it never stands erect like a tree, 
and grows in great patches from a few yards to several 
acres in extent. A man might walk over a dense growth 
of it in winter and yet see nothing but a few bunches of 
sharp green needles, sticking up here and there through 
the snow. It is found on the most desolate steppes 
and upon the rockiest mountain sides from the Okhotsk 
Sea to the Arctic Ocean, and seems to grow most luxu- 
riantly where the soil is most barren and the storms 
most severe. On great ocean-like plains, destitute of all 
other vegetation, this trailing pine lurks beneath the snow, 
and covers the ground in places with a perfect net-work 
of gnarled, twisted, and interlocking trunks. For some 
reason it always seems to die when it has attained a cer- 
tain age, and wherever you find its green spiny foliage 



268 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

you will also find dry white trunks as inflammable as rir> 
der. It furnishes almost the only fire-wood of the Wan- 
dering Koraks and Chookchees, and without it many 
parts of Northeastern Siberia would be absolutely unin 
habitable by man. Scores of nights during our explora- 
tions in Siberia, we should have been compelled to camp 
without fire, water, or warm food, had not Nature pro- 
vided everywhere an abundance of trailing pine, and 
stored it away under the snow for the use of travellers. V 
We left our camp in the valley early on the following 
morning, pushed on across the large and heavily timbered 
nver called the Aklan, and entered upon the great fteppe 
which stretches away from its northern bank toward 
Anadyrsk. For two days we travelled over this barren 
snowy plain, seeing no vegetation but stunted trees and 
patches of trailing pine along the banks of occasional 
streams, and no life except one or two solitary ravens 
and a red fox. The bleak and dreary landscape 
could have been described in two words — snow and sky. 
(j had come to Siberia with full confidence in the ultimate 
success of the Russo-American Telegraph line, but as I 
penetrated deeper and deeper into the country and saw 
its utter desolation I grew less and less sanguine. / Since 
leaving Geezhega we had travelled nearly three hundred 
versts, had found only four places where we could obtain 
poles, and had passed only three settlements. Unless 
we could find a better route than the one over which we 
had been, I feared that the Siberian telegraph line would 
be a failure. 

Up to this time we had been favored with unusuallj 



TENT XIFE IN SIBERIA. 269 

fine weather ; but it was a season of the year when storms 
were of frequent occurrence, and I was not surprised to be 
awakened Christmas night by the roaring of the wind and 
the hissing sound of the snow as it swept through our un- 
protected camp and buried up our dogs and sledges. 
We were having a slight touch of a Siberian "poorga.'' 
A fringe of trees along the little stream on which we were 
camped sheltered us in a measure from the storm, but out 
on the steppe it was evidently blowing a gale. We rose 
as usual at daylight and made an attempt to travel ; but 
no sooner did we leave the cover of the trees than our 
dogs became almost unmanageable, and, blinded and 
half suffocated with flying snow, we were driven back 
again into the timber. It was impossible to see thirty 
feet, and the wind blew with such fury that our dogs 
would not face it. We massed our sledges together as a 
sort of breastwork against the drifting snow, spread our 
fur bags down behind them, crawled in and covered up 
our heads with deer-skins and blankets, and prepared foi 
a long dismal siege. There is nothing so thoroughly, 
hopelessly dreary and uncomfortable, as camping out 
upon a Siberian steppe in a storm. The wind blows with 
such violence that a tent cannot possibly be made to 
stand ; the fire is half extinguished by drifting snow, and 
.fills the eyes with smoke and cinders when it burns at all ; 
conversation is impossible on account of the roaring of 
the wind and the beating of the snow in one's face • bear- 
skins, pillows, and furs become stiff and icy with half- 
melted sleet, sledges are buried up, and there remains 
nothing for tl e unhappy traveller to do but crawl into his 



270 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

sleeping-bag, cover up his head, and shiver away the 
long, dismal hours. 

We lay out on th* snow in this storm for two days, 
spending nearly all the time in our fur bags and suffering 
severely from the cold during the long, dark nights. On 
the 28th, about four o'clock in the morning, the storm 
began to abate, and by six we had dug out our sledges 
and were under way. There was a low spur of the 
Stanavoi Mountains about ten versts north of our camp, 
and our men said that if we could get across that before 
daylight we would probably have no more bad weather 
until we reached Penzhina. Our dog-food was entirely 
exhausted, and we must make the settlement within the 
next twenty-four hours if possible. 

The snow had been blown hard by the wind, our dogs 
were fresh from two days' rest, and before daylight we had 
crossed the ridge and stopped in a little valley on the 
northern slope of the mountain to drink tea. When com- 
pelled to travel all night, the Siberian natives always make a 
practice of stopping just before sunrise and allowing their 
dogs to get to sleep. They argue that if a dog goes to 
sleep while it is yet dark, and wakes up in an hour and 
finds the sun shining, he will suppose that he has had a 
full night's rest and will travel all day without thinking 
of being tired. An hour's stop, however, at any other 
time will be of no use whatever. As soon as we thought 
we had deluded our dogs into the belief that they had 
slept all night, we roused them up and started down the 
valley toward a tributary of the Penzhina River, known as 
the Ooskanova. The weather was clear and not very 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 2 ft 

ccld, and wo all enjoyed die pleasant change and die 
brief two hours of sunshine which were vouchsafed us 
before the sun sank behind the white peaks of Stanavoi. 
Just at dark we crossed the river Kondra, fifteen miles 
from Penzhina, and in two hours more we were hopelessly 
lost on another great level steppe, and broken up into 
two or three separate and bewildered parties. I had 
fallen asleep soon after passing the Kondra, and had not 
the slightest idea how we were progressing or whither we 
were going, until Dodd shook me by the shoulder and 
said, " Kennan, we're lost." Rather a startling announce- 
ment to wake a man with, but as Dodd did not seem to 
be much concerned about it, I assured him that I didn't 
care, and lying back on my pillow went to sleep again. 
fully satisfied that my driver would find Penzhina some 
time in the course of the night. 

Guided by the stars, Dodd, Gregorie, and I, with one 
other sledge which remained with us, turned away to the 
eastward, and about nine o'clock came upon the Penzhina 
River somewhere below the settlement. We started up il 
on the ice, and had gone but a short distance when we 
saw two or three sledges coming down the river. 
Surprised to find men travelling away from the vil- 
lage at that hour of the night, we hailed them with a 
" Halloo ! " 

" Halloo ! " 

" Vwe kooda yaydetia ? " — Where are you going ? 

"We're going to Penzhina ; who are you ?" 

" We're Geezheginski, also going to Penzhina ; what 
you coming down the river for ? " 



272 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

"We're trying to find the village, devil take it; we've 
been travelling all night and can't find anything ! " 

Upon this Dodd burst' into a loud laugh, and as the 
mysterious sledges drew nearer we recognized in their 
drivers three of our own men who had separated from us 
soon after dark, and who were now trying to reach 
Penzhina by going down the river toward the Okhotsk 
Sea. We could hardly convince them that the village 
did not lie in that direction. They finally turned back 
with us, however, and some time after midnight we drove 
into Penzhina, roused the sleeping inhabitants with a 
series of unearthly yells, startled fifty or sixty dogs into 
a howling protest against such untimely disturbance, and 
threw the whole settlement into a general uproar. 

In ten minutes we were seated on bear-skins be- 
fore a warm fire in a cozy Russian house, drinking cup 
after cup of fragrant tea, and talking over our night's 
adventures. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The village of Penzhina is a little collection of log- 
houses, flat-topped yourts, and four-legged bologans, situ- 
ated on the north bank of the river which bears its name, 
about half-way between the Okhotsk Sea and Anadyrsk. 
It is inhabited principally by " meschans," or free Rus- 
sian peasants, but contains also in its scanty population 
a few "Chooances" or aboriginal Siberian natives, who 
were subjugated by the Russian Cossacks in the eigh- 
teenth century, and who now speak the language of their 
conquerors and gain a scanty subsistence by fishing and 
trading in furs. The town is sheltered on the north by a 
very steep bluff about a hundred feet in height, which, 
like all hills in the vicinity of Russian settlements, bears 
upon its summit a curiously-shaped Greek cross with 
three arms. The river opposite the settlement is about 
a hundred yards in width, and its banks are heavily tim- 
bered with birch, larch, poplar, willow, and aspen. Ow- 
ing to warm springs in its bed, it never entirely freezes 
over at this point, and in a temperature of 40 below 
zero gives off dense clouds of steam which hide the vil- 
lage from sight as effectually as a London fog. 

We remained at Penzhina three days, gathering infor- 
mation about the surrounding country and engaging men 

to cut poles for our line. We found the people to be 
12* 



2 74 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

cheerful, good-natured, and hospitable, and disposed to 
do all which lay in their power to further our plans ; but, 
of course, they had never heard of a telegraph, and could 
not imagine what we were going to do with the poles 
which we were so anxious to have cut. Some said that 
we intended to build a wooden road from Geezhega to 
Anadyrsk, so that it would be possible to travel back and 
forth in the summer ; others contended with some show 
of probability that two men, even if they were Americans, 
could not construct a wooden road, six hundred versts 
long, and that our real object was to build some sort of a 
huge house. When questioned as to the use of this im- 
mense edifice, however, the advocates of the house theory 
were covered with confusion, and could only insist upon 
the physical impossibility of a road, and call upon their 
opponents to accept the house or suggest something bet- 
ter. We succeeded in engaging sixteen able-bodied men, 
however, to cut poles for a reasonable compensation, 
gave them the required dimensions — twenty-one feet long 
and five inches in diameter at the top — and instructed 
them to cut as many as possible, and pile them up along 
the banks of the river. 

I may as well mention here, that when I returned from 
Anadyrsk in March I went to look at the poles, 500 in 
number, which the Penzhina men had cut. I found, to 
my great astonishment, that there was hardly one of them 
less than twelve inches in diameter at the top, and that 
the majority were so heavy and unwieldy that a dozen 
men could not move them. I told the natives that they 
would not do, and asked why they had not cut smalle? 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 2 75 

ones, as 1 had directed. They replied that they supposed 
I wanted to build some kind of a road on the tops of 
these poles, and they knew that poles only five inches in 
diameter would not be strong enough to hold it up I 
They had accordingly cut trees large enough to be used as 
pillars for a state-house. ulhey still lie there, buried in 
Arctic snows ; and I have no doubt that many years 
hence, when Macaulay's New Zealander shall have fin- 
ished sketching the ruins of St. Paul's and shall have gone 
to Siberia to complete his education, he will be enter- 
tained by his native drivers with stories of how two crazy 
Americans once tried to build an elevated railroad from 
the Okhotsk Sea to Behring's Straits. I only hope that 
the New Zealander will write a book, and confer upon the 
two crazy Americans the honor and the immortality 
which their labors deserved, but which the elevated rail- 
ioad failed to give. 

We left Penzhina on the 31st day of December for 
Anadyrsk. After travelling all day, as usual, over a bar- 
ren steppe, we camped for the night near the foot of a 
white isolated peak called Nalgim, in a terrible tempera- 
ture of 53 below zero. It was New Year's Eve ; and 
as I sat by the fire in my heaviest furs, covered from head 
tu foot with frost, I thought of the great change which a 
single year had made in my surroundings. New Year's 
Eve, 1864, I had spent in Central America ; riding on a 
mule from Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific Coast, through 
a magnificent tropical forest. New Year's Eve, 1865, 
found me squatting on a great snowy plain near the 
Arctic circle, trying, in a temperature of 53° below zero, 



276 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

to eat up my soup before it froze solidly to the plate, 
Hardly could there have been a greater contrast. 

Our camp near Mount Nalgim abounded in trail- 
ing pine, and we made a fire which sent up a column of 
ruddy flame ten feet in height ; but it did not seem to 
have much influence upon the atmosphere. Our eyelids 
froze together while we were drinking tea ; our soup, 
taken hot from the kettle, froze in our tin plates before 
we could possibly finish eating it ; and the breasts of our 
fur-coats were covered with a white rime, while we sat 
only a few feet from a huge blazing camp-fire. Tin 
plates, knives, and spoons burned the bare hand when 
touched, almost exactly as if they were red hot ; and water, 
spilled on a little piece of board only fourteen inches 
from the fire, froze solid in less than two minutes. The 
warm bodies of our dogs gave off clouds of steam ; and 
even the bare hand, wiped perfectly dry, exhaled a thin 
vapor when exposed to the air. We had never before 
experienced so low a temperature ; but we suffered very 
little except from cold feet, and Dodd declared, that with 
a good fire and plenty of fat food he would not be afraid 
to try fifteen degrees lower. The greatest cause of suf- 
fering in Siberia is wind. Twenty degrees below zero, 
with a fresh breeze, is almost unendurable ; and a gale of 
wind, with a temperature of — 40 , would kill every living 
thing exposed to its influence. Intense cold of itself is 
not particularly dangerous to life. A man who will eat 
a hearty supper of dried fish and tallow, dress himself in a 
Siberian costume, and crawl into a heavy fur bag, may 
spend a night out-doors in a temperature of — 70 without 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 2?? 

any very serious danger ; but if he is tired out with long 
travel, if his clothes are wet with perspiration, or if he 
has not enough to eat, he may freeze to death with the 
thermometer at zero. The most important rules for an 
Arctic traveller are : To eat plenty of fat food ; to avoid 
over-exertion and night journeys • and never to get into 
a profuse perspiration by violent exercise for the sake of 
temporary warmth. I have seen Wandering Chookchees, 
in a region destitute of wood and in a dangerous tempera- 
ture, travel all day with aching feet rather than exhaust 
their strength by trying to warm them in running. They 
would never exercise except when it was absolutely neces- 
sary to keep from freezing. As a natural consequence, 
they were almost as fresh at night as they had been in the 
morning, and if they failed to find wood for a fire, or weie 
compelled by some unforeseen exigency to travel through- 
out the twenty-four hours, they had the strength to do it. 
An inexperienced traveller, under the same circumstances, 
would have exhausted all his energy during the day in try- 
ing, to keep perfectly warm ; and at night, wet with per- 
spiration and tired out by too much violent exercise, he 
would almost inevitably have frozen to death. 

For two hours after supper, Dodd and I sat by the fire, 
trying experiments to see what the intense cold would do. 
About eight o'clock the heavens became suddenly over- 
cast with clouds, and in less than an hour the thermo- 
meter had risen nearly thirty degrees. Congratulating 
ourselves upon this fortunate change in the weather, we 
crawled into our fur bags and slept away as much as we 
could of the long Arctic night 



278 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Our life for the next few days was the same monoto- 
nous routine of riding, camping and sleeping with which we 
were already so familiar. The country over which we 
passed was generally bleak, desolate, and uninteresting ; 
the weather was cold enough for discomfort, but not 
enough so to make out-door life dangerous or exciting ; 
the days were only two or three hours in length and the 
nights were interminable. Going into camp early in the 
afternoon, when the sun disappeared, we had before us 
about twenty hours of darkness, in which we must either 
amuse ourselves in some way, or sleep. Twenty hours' 
sleep for any one but a Rip Van Winkle was rather an 
over-dose, and during at least half that time we could think 
of nothing better to do than sit around the camp-fire on 
bear-skins and talk. Ever since leaving Petropavlovski, 
talking had been our chief amusement ; and although it 
had answered very well for the first hundred nights or so, 
it was now becoming a little monotonous and our mental 
resources were running decidedly low. We could not 
think of a single subject about which we knew anything 
that had not been talked over, criticised, and discussed 
to the very bone. We had related to each other in detail 
the whole history of our respective lives, together with the 
lives of all our ancestors as far back as we knew anything 
about them. We had discussed in full every known pro- 
blem of Love, War, Science, Politics, and Religion, includ- 
ing a great many that we knew nothing whatever about, 
and had finally been reduced to such topics of conversa- 
tion as the size of the army with which Xerxes invaded 
Greece and the probable extent of the Noachian deluge. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 279 

As thei e was no possibility of arriving at any mutually satis- 
factory conclusion with regard to either of these impor- 
tant questions, the debate had been prolonged for twentj 
or thirty consecutive nights and finally left open for future 
consideration. In cases of desperate emergency, when all 
other topics of conversation failed, we knew that we could 
return to Xerxes and the Flood ; but these subjects had 
been dropped by the tacit consent of both parties soon 
after leaving Geezhega, and were held in reserve as a 
" dernier ressort " for stormy nights in Korak yourts. One 
night as we were encamped on a great steppe north of 
Shestakova, the happy idea occurred to me that I might 
pass away these long evenings out of doors, by delivering 
a course of lectures to my native drivers upon the wonders 
of modern science. It would amuse me, and at the same 
time instruct them — or at least I hoped it would, and I 
proceeded at once to put the plan into execution. I turned 
my attention first to Astronomy. Camping out on the open 
steppe, with no roof above except the starry sky, I had 
every facility for the illustration of my subject, and night 
after night as we travelled to the northward I might have 
been seen in the centre of a group of eager natives, whose 
swarthy faces were lighted up by the red blaze of the camp- 
fire, and who listened with childish curiosity while I ex- 
plained the phenomena of the seasons, the revolution of 
the planets round the sun, and the causes of a lunar eclipse. 
I was compelled, like John Phoenix, to manufacture my 
own orrery, and I did it with a lump of frozen tallow to ic- 
presentthe earth, a chunk of black bread for the moon, and 
small pieces of dried meat for the lesser planets. The re 



280 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

semblance to the heavenly bodies was not, 1 must confess, 
very striking • but by making believe pretty hard we man- 
aged to get along. A spectator would have been amused 
could he have seen with what grave solemnity I circula- 
ted the bread and tallow in their respective orbits, and 
have heard the long-drawn exclamations of astonishment 
from the natives as I brought the bread into eclipse be- 
hind the lump of tallow. My first lecture would have been 
a grand success if my native audience had only been able 
to understand the representative and symbolical character 
of the bread and tallow. The great trouble was that their 
imaginative faculties were weak. They could not be made 
to see that bread stood for the moon and tallow for the 
earth, but. persisted in regarding them as so many terres- 
trial productions having an intrinsic value of their own. 
They accordingly melted up the earth to drink, devoured 
the moon whole, and wanted another lecture immediately. 
I endeavored to explain to them that these lectures were 
intended to be astronomical, not ^astronomical, and that 
eating and drinking up the heavenly bodies in this reckless 
way was very improper. Astronomical science I assured 
them did not recognize any such eclipses as those pro- 
duced by swallowing the planets, and however satisfactory 
such a course might be to them, it was very demoralizing to 
my orrery. Remonstrances had very little effect, and I 
was compelled to provide a new sun, moon, and earth for 
every lecture. It soon became evident to me that these 
astronomical feasts were becoming altogether too popular, 
for my audience thought nothing of eating up a whole so- 
lai system every night, and planetary material was becom 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 28 1 

ing scarce. I was finally compelled, therefore, to use 
stones and snow-balls to represent celestial bodies, instead 
of bread and tallow, and from that time the interest in 
astronomical phenomena gradually abated and the popu- 
larity of my lectures steadily declined until I was left 
without a single hearer. 

The short winter day of three hours had long since 
closed and the night was far advanced when after twenty- 
three days of rough travel we drew near our final destina- 
tion — the ultima Thule of Russian civilization. I was lying 
on my sledge nearly buried in heavy furs and half asleep, 
when the distant barking of dogs announced our approach 
to the village of Anadyrsk. I made a hurried attempt to 
change my thick fur "torbassa" and overstockings for 
American boots, but was surprised in the very act by the 
drawing up of my sledge before the house of the Russian 
priest, where we intended to stop until we could make 
arrangements for a house of our own. 

A crowd of curious spectators had gathered about the 
tloor to see the wonderful Amerikanse about whom they had 
heard, and prominent in the centre of the fur-clad group 
stood the priest, with long flowing hair and beard, dressed 
in a voluminous black robe, and holding above his head 
a long tallow candle which flared wildly in the cold night 
air. As soon as I could disencumber my feet of my over- 
stockings I alighted from my sledge, amid profound bows 
and "zdrastvuitias" from the crowd, and,received a hearty 
welcome from the patriarchal priest. Three weeks rough- 
ing it in the wilderness had not, I fancy, improved my per- 
sonal appearance, ar \ my costume would have excited a 



282 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

sensation anywhere except in Siberia. My face, which Avas 
not over clean, was darkened by three weeks' growth of 
beard ; my hair was in confusion and hung in long ragged 
locks over my forehead, and the fringe of shaggy black 
bear-skin around my face gave me a peculiarly wild and 
savage expression of countenance. The American boots 
which I had hastily drawn on as we entered the village 
weie all that indicated any previous acquaintance with civil- 
ization. Replying to the respectful salutations of the 
Chooances, Yoo-kag-hirs, and Russian Cossacks who in 
yellow fur hoods and spotted deer-skin coats crowded 
about the door, I followed the priest into the house. It 
was the second dwelling worthy the name of house which 
I had entered in twenty-two days, and after the smoky 
Korak yourts of Kooeel, Meekina, and Shestakova, it 
seemed to me to be a perfect palace. The floor was car- 
peted with soft, dark deer- skins in which one's feet sank 
deeply at every step ; a blazing fire burned in a neat fire- 
place in one corner, and flooded the room with cheerful 
light ; the tables were covered with bright American table- 
cloths ; a tiny gilt taper was lighted before a massive gilt 
shrine opposite the door; the windows were of glass 
instead of the slabs of ice and the smoky fish-bladders to 
which I had become accustomed ; a few illustrated news- 
papers liyon a stand in one corner, and everything in the 
house was arranged with a taste and view to comfort 
which were as welcome to a tired traveller as they were 
unexpected in this land of desolate steppes and uncivilized 
people. Dodd, who was driving his own sledge, had not 
yet arrived; but from the door we could hear a voice in 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 283 

the adjoining forest singing " Won't I be glad when I get 
out of the wilderness, out o' the wilderness, out o' the 
wilderness " — the musician being entirely unconscious that 
he was near the village, or that his melodiously expressed 
desire to "get out o' the wilderness" was overheard by 
anyone else. My Russian was not extensive or accurate 
enough to enable me to converse very satisfactorily with 
the priest, and I was heartily glad when Dodd got out of 
the wilderness, and appeared to relieve my embarrassment. 
He didn't look much better than I did ; that was one 
comfort. I drew mental comparisons as soon as he en- 
tered the room and convinced myself that one looked as 
much like a Korak as the other, and that either could 
claim precedence in point of civilization on account of 
superior elegance of dress. We shook hands with the 
priest's wife — a pale slender lady with light hair and dark 
eyes — made the acquaintance of two or three pretty little 
children, who fled from us in affright as soon as they were 
released, and finally seated ourselves at the table to drink 
tea. 

Our host's cordial manner soon put us at our ease, and 
in ten minutes Dodd was rattling off fluently a highly- 
colored account of our adventures and sufferings, laugh- 
ing, joking, and drinking vodka with the priest, as un- 
ceremoniously as if he had known him for ten years 
instead of as many minutes. That was a peculiar gift of 
Dodd's, which I often used to envy. In five minutes, 
with the assistance of a little vodka, he would break down 
the ceremonious reserve of the severest old patriarch in 
the whole Greek Church, and completely carry him bj 



284 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

storm ; while I could only sitby and smile feebly, without 
being able to say a word. (Great is " the gift o' gab^)' 

After an excellent supper of "schee" or cabbage-soup, 
fried cutlets, white bread and butter, we spread our bear 
skins down on the floor, undressed ourselves for the 
second time in three weeks, and went to bed. The sen- 
sation of sleeping without furs, and with uncovered heads, 
was so strange, that for a long time we lay awake, watch- 
ing the red flickering fire-light on the wall, and enjoying 
the delicious warmth of soft, fleecy blankets, and the 
luxury of unconfined limbs and bare feet. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

V The four little Russian and native villages just sout!" 
of the Arctic circle, which are collectively known as Ana- 
dyrsk, form the last link in the great chain of settlements 
which extends in one almost unbroken line from the Ural 
Mountains to Behring's Straits. Owing to their pecu- 
liarly isolated situation, and the difficulties and hardships 
of travel during the only season in which they are acces- 
sible, they had never, previous to our arrival, been visited 
by any foreigner, with the single exception of a Swedish 
officer in the Russian service, who led an exploring party 
from Anadyrsk toward Behring's Straits, in the winter of 
1859-60. Cut off, during half the year, from all the rest 
of the world, and visited only at long intervals by a few 
half-civilized traders, this little quadruple village was 
almost as independent and self-sustained as if it were 
situated in the midst of the open Polar Sea. Even its 
existence, to those who had no dealings with it, was a 
matter of question. It was founded early in the eight- 
eenth century, by a band of roving, adventurous Cos- 
sacks, who, having conquered nearly all the rest of 
Siberia, pushed through the mountains from Kolyma to 
the Anadyr, drove out the Chookchees, who resisted their 
advance and established a military post on the river, a 
few v^rsts above the site of the present settlement. A 



286 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

iesultor) warfare then began between the Chookchees 
and the Russian invaders, which lasted, with varying sue 
cess, for many years. During a considerable part of the 
time Anadyrsk was garrisoned by a force of six hundred 
men and a battery of artillery; but after the discovery 
and settlement of Kamtchatka it sank into comparative 
unimportance, the troops were mostly withdrawn, and it 
was finally captured by the Chockchees and burned. 
During the war which resulted in the destruction of 
Anadyrsk, two native tribes called the Chooances and 
Yookaghirs, who had taken sides with the Russians, were 
almost annihilated by the Chookchees, and were nevei 
able afterward to regain their distinct tribal individuality. 
The few who were left lost all their reindeer and camp 
equipage, and were compelled to settle down with their 
Russian allies, and gain a livelihood by hunting and fish- 
ing. They have gradually adopted Russian customs 
and lost all their distinctive traits of character ; and in a 
few years not a single living soul will speak the languages 
of those once powerful tribes. By the Russians, Choo* 
ances, and Yookaghirs, Anadyrsk was finally rebuilt, and 
became in time a trading-post of considerable importance. 
Tobacco, which had been introduced by the Russians, soon 
acquired great popularity with the Chookchees ; and for 
the sake of obtaining this highly-prized luxury they ceased 
hostilities, and began making yearly visits to Anadyrsk 
for the purpose of trade. They never entirely lost, how- 
ever, a certain feeling of enmity against the Russians who 
had invaded their territory, and for many years would 
have no dealings with them except at the end of a spear 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 287 

They would hang a bundle of furs or a choice walrus 
tooth upon the sharp polished blade of a long Chookchee 
lance, and if a Russian trader chose to take it off and 
suspend in its place a fair equivalent in the shape of 
tobacco, well and good ; if not, there was no trade. 
This plan guaranteed absolute security against fraud, for 
there was not a Russian in all Siberia who dared to cheat 
one of these fierce savages, with the blade of a long lance 
ten inches from his breast bone. Honesty was emphati- 
cally the best policy, and the moral suasion of a Chook- 
chee spear developed the most disinterested benevolence 
in the breast of the man who stood at the sharp end. The 
trade which was thus established still continues to be a 
source of considerable profit to the inhabitants of Ana- 
dyrsk, and to the Russian merchants who come there 
every year from Geezhega. 

The four small villages which compose the settlement 
and which are distinctively known as " Pokorookof," 
"Psolkin," "Markova," and "The Crepast," have alto- 
gether a population of perhaps two hundred souls. The 
central village, called Markova, is the residence of the 
priest and boasts a small rudely-built church, but in win- 
ter it is a dreary place. Its small log-houses have no win- 
dows but thick slabs of ice cut from the river ; many of 
them are sunken in the ground for the sake of greater 
warmth, and all are more or less buried in snow. A dense 
forest of larch, poplar, and aspen surrounds the town, so 
that the traveller coming from Geezhega sometimes has 
to hunt for it a whole day, and if he be not familiar with 
the net-work of channels into which the Anadyr River is 



288 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

here divided, he may not find it at all. The inhabitants 
of all four settlements divide their time in summer be- 
tween fishing and hunting the wild reindeer, which make 
annual migrations across the river in immense herds. In 
winter they are generally absent with their sledges, visit- 
ing and trading with bands of Wandering Chookchees, 
going with merchandise to the great annual fair at Kolyma, 
and hiring their services to the Russian traders from 
Geezhega. The Anadyr River, in the vicinity of the village 
and for a distance of seventy-five miles above, is densely 
wooded with trees eighteen and twenty four inches in dia- 
meter, although the latitude of the upper portion of it is 
66° N. The climate is very severe ; meteorological ob- 
servations which we made at Mark ova in February, 1867, 
showed that on sixteen days in that month the thermo- 
meter went to — 40 , on eight days it went below — 50 , 
five days below — 6o°, and once to —68°. This was the 
lowest temperature we ever experienced in Siberia. The 
changes from intense cold to comparative warmth are some- 
times very rapid. On February 18th, at 9 a.m., the 
thermometer stood at — 52 , but in twenty-seven hours 
it had risen seventy-three degrees and stood at +21 . 
On the 2 1 st it marked +3 and on the 2 2d — 49 , an 
equally rapid change in the other direction. Notwithstand- 
ing the climate, however, Anadyrsk is as pleasant a place 
to live as are nine-tenths of the Russian settlements in 
Northeastern Siberia, and we enjoyed the novelty of our 
life there in the winter of 1866 as much as we had enjoy- 
ed any part of our previous Siberian experience. 

The day which succeeded our- arrival we spent in rest- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 289 

ing and making ourselves as presentable as possible, with 
the limited resources afforded by our seal-skin trunks. 

Thursday, January 6th, N. S., was the Russian Christ- 
mas, and we all rose about four hours before daylight to 
attend an early service in the church. Everybody in the 
house was up ; a fire burned brightly in the fire-place ; 
gilded tapers were lighted before all the holy pictures and 
shrines in our room, and the air was fragrant with incense. 
Out of doors there was not yet a sign of daybreak. The 
Pleiades were low down in the west, the great constella- 
tion of Orion had begun to sink, and a faint aurora was 
streaming up over the tree-tops north of the village. 
From every chimney around rose columns of smoke and 
sparks, which showed that the inhabitants were all astir. 
We walked over to the little log-church as quickly as 
possible, but the service had already commenced when 
we entered, and silently took our places in the crowd of 
bowing worshippers. The sides of the room were lined 
with pictures of patriarchs and Russian saints, before 
which were burning long wax candles wound spirally 
with strips of gilded paper. Clouds of blue fragrant in- 
cense rolled up toward the roof from swinging censers, 
and the deep intonation of the gorgeously-attired priest 
contrasted strangely with the high soprano chanting of 
the choir. The service of the Greek Chuich is more 
impressive, if anything, than that of the Romish ; but as 
it is conducted in the old Sclavonic language, it is almost 
wholly unintelligible. ( The priest is occupied during most 
of the time in gabbling rapid prayers which nobody can 
understand ; swinging a censer, bo-wing, crossing himself, 



2QO TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

and kissing a huge Bible, which I should think would 
weigh thirty pounds. The administration of the sacra- 
ment and the ceremonies attending the transubstantiation 
of the bread and wine are made very effective. The 
most beautiful feature in the whole service of the Greco- 
Russian Church is the music. No one can listen to it 
without emotion, even in a little log-chapel far away in 
the interior of Siberia. Rude as it may be in execution, 
it breathes the very spirit of devotion ; and I have often 
stood through a long service of two or three hours, for the 
sake of hearing a few chanted psalms and prayers. Even 
the tedious, rapid, and mixed-up jabbering of the priest 
is relieved at short intervals by the varied and beautifully- 
modulated "Gospodi pameelui" (God, have mercy !) and 
*' Padai Gospodin" (Grant, O Lord !) of the choir. The 
congregation stands throughout even the longest service, 
and seems to be wholly absorbed in devotion. All cross 
themselves and bow incessantly in response to the words 
of the priest, and not unfrequentiy prostrate themselves 
entirely, and reverently press their foreheads and lips tc 
the floor. To a spectator this seems very curious. One 
moment he is surrounded by a crowd of fur-clad natives 
and Cossacks, who seem to be listening quietly to the ser- 
vice ; then suddenly the whole congregation goes down 
upon the floor, like a platoon of infantry under the fire of 
a masked battery, and he is left standing alone in the midst 
of nearly a hundred prostrate forms. At the conclusion 
of the Christmas morning service the choir burst forth into 
a jubilant hymn, to express the joy of the angels ovei 
the Saviour's birth ; and amid the discordant jangling of 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 29I 

a chime of bells, which hung in a little log-tower at the 
door, Dodd and I made our way out of the church, and 
returned to the house to drink tea. I had just finished 
my last cup and lighted a cigarette, when the door sud- 
denly opened, half a dozen men, with grave, impassioned 
countenances, marched in in single file, stopped a few 
paces from the holy pictures in the corner, crossed them- 
selves devoutly in unison, and began to sing a simple but 
sweet Russian melody, beginning with the words, " Christ 
is born." Not expecting to hear Christmas carols in a 
little Siberian settlement on the Arctic circle, I was taken 
completely by surprise, and could only stare in amaze- 
ment — first at Dodd, to see what he thought about it, 
and then at the singers. The latter, in their musical 
ecstasy, seemed to entirely ignore our presence, and not 
until they had finished did they turn to us, shake hands, 
and wish us a merry Christmas. Dodd gave each of 
them a few kopecks, and with repeated wishes of merry 
Christmas, long life, and much happiness to our " High 
Excellencies," the men withdrew to visit in turn the 
other houses of the village. One band of singers came 
after another, until at daylight all the younger portion of 
the population had visited our house, and received our 
kopecks. Some of the smaller boys, more intent upon 
the acquisition of coppers than they were upon the so- 
lemnity of the ceremony, rather marred its effect by / 
closing up their hymn with "Christ is born; gim'me \ 
some money ! " but most of them behaved with the ut- 
most propriety, and left us greatly pleased with a custom 
so beautiful and appropriate. At sunrise all the tapers 



292 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

were extinguished, the people donned their gayest ap 
parel, and the whole village gave itself up to the unre- 
strained enjoyment of a grand holiday. Bells jangled 
incessantly from the church tower; dog-sledges, loaded 
with girls, went dashing about the streets, capsizing 
into snow-drifts, and rushing furiously down hills, amid 
shouts of laughter ; women in gay flowery calico dresses, 
with theii hair tied up in crimson silk handkerchiefs, 
walked from house to house, paying visits of congratula- 
tion, and talking over the arrival of the distinguished 
American officers ; crowds of men played foot-ball on the 
snow, and the whole settlement presented an animated, 
lively appearance. 

On the evening of the third day after Christmas, the 
priest gave in our honor a grand Siberian ball, to which 
all the inhabitants of the four villages were invited, and 
for which the most elaborate preparations were made. 
A ball at the house of a priest on Sunday night struck me 
as implying a good deal of inconsistency, and I hesitated 
about sanctioning so plain a violation of the fourth com- 
mandment. Dodd, however, proved to me in the most 
conclusive manner that, owing to difference in time, it 
was Saturday in America and not Sunday at all ; that our 
friends at that very moment were engaged in business or 
pleasure, and that our happening to be on the other side 
of the world was no reason why we should not do what 
our antipodal friends were doing at exactly the same 
time. I was conscious that this reasoning was sophist!' 
cal, but Dodd mixed me up so with his "longitude," 
" Greenwich time," " Bowditch's Navigators," " Russian 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



293 



Sundays" and "American Sundays," that I was hopelessl} 
bewildered, and couldn't have told for my life whether it 
was to day in America or yesterday, or when a Siberian 
Sunday did begin. I finally concluded that as the Rus- 
sians kept Saturday night, and began another week at sun- 
set on the Sabbath, a dance would perhaps be sufficiently 
innocent for that evening. According to Siberian ideas 
o* propriety it was just the thing. 

/"A partition was removed in our house, the floor made 
bare, the room brilliantly illuminated with candles stuck 
against the wall with melted grease, benches placed 
around three sides of the house for the ladies, and about 
five o'clock the pleasure seekers began to assemble* 
Rather an early hour perhaps for a ball, but it seemed 
a very long time after dark. The crowd which soon 
gathered numbered about forty, the men being all 
dressed in heavy fur kookhlankas, fur pantaloons, and fur 
boots, and the ladies in thin white muslin and flowery 
calico prints. The costumes of the respective sexes did 
not seem to harmonize very well, one being light and 
airy enough for an African summer, and the other suitable 
for a Polar expedition in search of Sir John Franklin. . 
However, the general effect was very picturesque. The 
orchestra which was to furnish the music consisted of 
two rudely made violins, two " bellalikas " or triangular 
native guitars with two strings each, and a huge comb, 
prepared with a piece of paper in a manner familiar to 
all boys. Feeling a little curiosity to see how an affair 
of this kind would be managed upon Siberian principles 
of etiquette, I sat quietly in a sheltered corner and watched 



294 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA, 

the pioceedings. The ladies, as fast as they arrived, 
seated themselves in a solemn row along a wooden bench 
at one end of the room, and the men stood up in a dense 
throng at the other. Everybody was preternaturally 
sober. No one smiled, no one said anything ; and the 
silence was unbroken save by an occasional rasping 
sound from an asthmatic fiddle in the orchestra, or a 
melancholy toot, toot, as one of the musicians tuned his 
comb. If this was to be the nature of the entertainment, 
I could not see any impropriety in having it on Sunday. 
It was as mournfully suggestive as a funeral. Little did 
I know, however, the capabilities of excitement which 
were concealed under the sober exteriors of those natives. 
In a few moments a little stir around the door announced 
refreshments, and a young Chooancee brought round and 
handed to - me a huge wooden bowl, holding about four 
quarts of raw frozen cranberries. I thought it could not 
be possible that I was expected to eat four quarts of 
frozen cranberries ! but I took a spoonful or two, and 
looked to Dodd for instructions. He motioned to me to 
pass them along, and as they tasted like acidulated hail- 
stones, and gave me the toothache, I was very glad to do so. 
The next course consisted of another wooden bowl, 
filled with what seemed to be white pine shavings, and I 
looked at it in perfect astonishment. Frozen cran- 
berries and pine shavings were the most extraordinary re- 
freshments which I had ever seen — even in Siberia ; but 
I prided myself upon my ability to eat almost anything, 
and if the natives could stand cranberries and shavings I 
knew I could. What seemed to be white pine shavings 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 295 

I found upon trial to be thin shavings of raw frozen fish 
— a great delicacy among the Siberians, and one with 
which, under the name of " strooganini," I afterward 
became very familiar. I succeeded in disposing of these 
fishy shavings without any more serious result than ap 
aggravation of my toothache. ( They were followed by 
white bread and butter, cranberry tarts, and cups of boil- 
ing hot tea, with which the supper finally ended. We 
were then supposed to be prepared for the labors of the 
evening ; and after a good deal of preliminary scraping 
and tuning the orchestra struck up with a lively Rus- 
sian dance called " kapalooshka." The heads and right 
legs of the musicians all beat time emphatically to the 
music, the man with the comb blew himself red in the 
face, and the whole assembly began to sing. In a mo- 
ment one of the men, clad in a spotted deer-skin coat and 
buck-skin pantaloons, sprang into the centre of the room 
and bowed low to a lady who sat upon one end of a long 
crowded bench. The lady rose with a graceful courtesy 
and they began a sort of half dance half pantomime about 
the room, advancing and retiring in perfect time to the 
music, crossing over and whirling swiftly around, the man 
apparently making love to the lady, and the lady repuls- 
ing all his advances, turning away and hiding her face 
with her handkerchief. After a few moments of this 
dumb show the lady retired and another took her place ; 
the music doubled its energy and rapidity, the dancers 
began the execution of a tremendous "break-down," 
and shrill exciting cries of " Heekh ! Heekh ! Heekh ! 
Vallai-i-i ! Ne fstavai-i-i ! " resounded from all parts of the 



296 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

room, together with terrific tootings from the comb and 
the beating of half a hundred feet on the bare planks. 
My blood began to dance in my veins with the contagious 
excitement. Suddenly the man dropped down upon hi a 
stomach on the floor at the feet of his partner, and began 
jumping. around like a huge broken-legged grasshopper 
upon his elbows and the ends of his toes ! This extra- 
ordinary feat brought down the house in the wildest en- 
thusiasm, and the uproar of shouting and singing drowned 
all the instruments except the comb, which still droned 
away like a Scottish bag-pipe in its last agonies ! Such 
singing, such dancing, and such excitement, I had never 
before witnessed. It swept away my self-possession like 
the blast of a trumpet sounding a charge. At last, the 
man, after dancing successively with all the ladies in the 
room, stopped, apparently exhausted — and I have no 
doubt that he was — and with the perspiration rolling in 
streams down his face, went in search of some frozen 
cranberries to refresh himself after his violent exertion. 
To this dance, which is called the u Rooske," succeeded 
another known as the " Cossack waltz," in which Dodd 
to my great astonishment promptly joined. I knew I 
could dance anything he could ; so, inviting a lady in red 
and blue calico to participate, I took my place on the 
floor, i The excitement was perfectly indescribable, when 
the two Americans began revolving swiftly around the 
room ; the musicians became almost frantic in their en- 
deavors to play faster, the man with the comb blew him- 
self into a fit of coughing and had to sit down, and a 
regular tramp, tramp, tramp, from fifty or sixty feet, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 297 

marked time to the music, together with encouraging 
shouts of " Vallai ! Amerikanse ! Heekh ! Heekh ! 
I leekh ! " and the tumultuous singing of the whole 
crazy multitude. The pitch of excitement to which these 
natives work themselves up in the course of these dances 
is almost incredible, and it has a wonderfully inspiriting 
effect even upon a foreigner. Had I not been tem- 
porarily insane with unnatural enthusiasm, I should never 
have made myself ridiculous by attempting to dance 
that Cossack waltz. It is considered a great breach of 
etiquette in Siberia, after once getting upon the floor, 
to sit down until you have danced, or at least offered to 
dance with all the ladies in the room ; and if they are at 
all numerous, it is a very fatiguing sort of amusement. 
(By the time Dodd and I finished we were ready to rush 
out doors, sit down on a snow-bank, and eat frozen fish 
and cranberry hail-stones by the quart, i Our whole 
physical system seemed melting with fervent heat. 

As an illustration of the esteem with which Americans 
are regarded in that benighted settlement of Anadyrsk, 
I will just mention that in the course of my Cossack waltz 
I stepped accidentally with my heavy boot upon the foot 
of a Russian peasant. I noticed that his face wore for a 
moment an expression of intense pain, and as soon as the 
dance was over, I went to him with Dodd as interpreter 
to apologize. iHe interrupted me with a profusion of 
bows, protested that it didn't hurt him at all, and declared 
with an emphasis which testified to his sincerity, that he 
considered it an honor to have his toe stepped on by an 
American ! I had never before realized what a proud 
13* 



298 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

and enviable distinction I enjoyed in being a native of oui 
highly favored country ! I could stalk abroad into foreign 
lands with a reckless disregard for everybody's toes, 
and the full assurance that the more toes I stepped on 
the more honor I would confer upon benighted foreigners, 
and the more credit I would reflect upon my own bene- 
volent disposition ! (This was clearly the place for unap- 
preciated Americans to come to ; and if any young man 
finds that his merits are not properly recognized at home, 
I advise him in all seriousness to go to Siberia, where the 
natives will consider it an honor to have him step on their 
toes. 

Dances interspersed with curious native games and 
frequent refreshments of frozen cranberries prolonged the 
entertainment until two o'clock, when it finally broke up, 
having lasted nine hours. I have described somewhat in 
detail this dancing party because it is the principal amuse- 
ment of the semi-civilized inhabitants of all the Russian 
settlements in Siberia, and shows better than anything 
else the careless, happy disposition of the people. 

_ Throughout the holidays the whole population did no- 
thing but pay visits, give tea parties, and amuse them- 
selves with dancing, sleigh-riding, and playing ball. 
Every evening between Christmas and New Year, bands 
of masqueraders dressed in fantastic costumes went 
around with music to all the houses in the village and 
treated the inmates to songs and dances. The inhabitants 
of these little Russian settlements in Northeastern Sibe- 
ria are the most careless, warm-hearted, hospitable people 
in the world, and their social life, rude as it is, partakes of 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 299 

all these characteristics, j There is no ceremony or affec 
tation, no putting on of style by any particular class 
All mingle unreservedly together and treat each othe* 
with the most affectionate cordiality, the men often kiss 
ing one another when they meet and part, as if they were 
brothers. Their isolation from all the rest of the world 
seems to have bound them together with ties of mutual 
sympathy and dependence, and banished all feelings of 
envy, jealousy, and petty selfishness. During our stay 
with the priest we were treated with the most thoughtful 
consideration and kindness, and his small store of luxuries, 
such as flour, sugar, and butter, was spent lavishly in pro- 
viding for our table. As long as it lasted he was glad to 
share it with us, and never hinted at compensation or 
seemed to think that he was doing any more than hospi- 
tality required. 

With the first ten days of our stay at Anadyrsk are 
connected some of the pleasantest recollections of oux 
Siberian life, 



• CHAPTER XXVII. 

SIBERIAN ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF OUR COMRADES. 

Immediately after our arrival at Anadyrsk we had made 
inquiries as to the party of Americans who were said to be 
living somewhere near the mouth of the Anadyr River ; 
but we were not able to get any information in addition to 
that we already possessed. Wandering Chookchees had 
brought the news to the settlement that a small band of 
white men had been landed on the coast south of Behring's 
Straits late in the fall, from a "fire-ship" or steamer ; that 
they had dug a kind of cellar in the ground, covered it 
over with bushes and boards, and gone into winter quar- 
ters. Who they were, what they had come for, and how 
long they intended to stay, were questions which now 
agitated the whole Chookchee nation, but which no one 
could answer. Their little subterranean hut had been entire- 
ly buried, the natives said, by the drifting snows of winter, 
and nothing but a curious iron tube out of which came 
smoke and sparks showed where the white men lived. This 
curious iron tube which so puzzled the Chookchees we at 
once supposed to be a stove-pipe, and it furnished the strong- 
est possible confirmation of the truth of the story. No Sibe- 
rian native could ever have invented the idea of a stove- 
pipe — somebody must have seen one ; and this fact alone 
convinced us beyond a doubt that there were Americans 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. *}OI 

living somewhere on the coast of Behring's Sea — probably 
an exploring party landed by Colonel Bulkley to co-oper- 
ate with us. 

The instructions which the Major gave me when we left 
Geezhega did not provide for any such contingency as 
the landing of this party near Behring's Straits, because at 
that time we had abandoned all hope of such co-operation 
and expected to explore the country by our own unaided 
exertions. The Engineer-in-chief had promised faithfully 
when we sailed from San Francisco, that if he should leave 
a party of men at the mouth of the Anadyr River at all, 
he would leave them there early in the season with a large 
whale-boat, so that they could ascend the river to a settle- 
ment before the opening of winter. When we met the 
Anadyrsk people, therefore, at Geezhega, late in Novem- 
ber, and learned that nothing had been heard of any such 
party, we of course concluded that for some reason the 
plan which Col. Bulkley proposed had been given up. No 
one dreamed that he would leave a mere handful of men 
in the desolate region south of Behring's Straits at the be- 
ginning of an Arctic winter, without any means whatever 
of transportation, without any shelter, surrounded by fierce 
tribes of lawless natives, and distant more than two hun- 
dred miles from the nearest civilized human being. What 
was such an unfortunate party to do ? They could only live 
there in inactivity until they starved, were murdered, or 
w ?re brought away by an expedition sent to their rescue 
from the interior. Such was the situation when Dodd and 
I arrived at Anadyrsk. Our orders were to leave the Ana- 
dyr River unexplored until another season ; but we kne\» 



302 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

lhat as soon as the Major should receive the letters which 
had passed through our hands at Shestakova he would 
learn that a party had been landed south of Behring's 
Straits, and would send us orders by special courier to go 
in search of it and bring it to Anadyrsk, where it would be 
of some use. We therefore determined to anticipate these 
orders and hunt up that American stove-pipe upon our 
own responsiblity. 

Our situation, however, was a very peculiar one. We 
had no means of finding out where we were ourselves, 
or where the American party was. We had not been 
furnished with instruments for making astronomical ob- 
servations, could not determine with any kind of accuracy 
our latitude and longitude, and did not know whether 
we were two hundred miles from the Pacific Coast or five 
hundred. According to the report of Lieut. Phillippeus, 
who had partially explored the- Anadyr River, it was 
about a thousand versts from the settlement to Anadyr 
Bay, while according to the dead reckoning which we 
had kept from Geezhega it could not be over four hun- 
dred. The real distance was to us a question of vital 
importance, because we should be obliged to carry dog- 
food for the whole trip, and if it was anything like a 
thousand versts we should in all probability lose our dogs 
by starvation before we could possibly get back. Besides 
this, when we finally reached Anadyr Bay, if we ever did, 
we would have no means of finding out where the Ameri- 
cans were ; and unless we happened to meet a band of 
Chookchees who had seen them, we might wander ovei 
those desolate plains for a month without coming across 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. JOJ 

the stove-pipe, which was the only external sign of theii 
subterranean habitation. It would be far worse than the 
proverbial search for a needle in a haystack. 

When we made known to the people of Anadyrsk oul 
intention of going to the Pacific Coast, and called for 
volunteers to make up a party, we met with the most 
discouraging opposition. The natives declared unani- 
mously that such a journey was impossible, that it had 
never been accomplished, that the lower Anadyr was 
swept by terrible storms, and perfectly destitute of wood, 
that the cold there was always intense, and that we 
should inevitably starve to death, freeze to death, or lose 
all our dogs. They quoted the experience of Lieut. Phil- 
lippeus, who had narrowly escaped utter starvation in the 
same region in t86o, and said that while he started in 
the spring we proposed to go in mid-winter, when the cold 
was most intense and the storms most severe. Such an 
adventure they declared was almost certain to end in 
disaster. Our Cossack Gregorie, a brave and trust- 
worthy old man, had been Lieut. Phillippeus's guide and 
Chookchee interpreter in i860, and had been down the 
river about a hundred and fifty miles in winter, and knew 
something about it. We accordingly dismissed the na- 
tives and talked the matter over with him. He said 
that as far as he had ever been towards Anadyr Bay there 
was trailing pine enough along the banks of the river to 
supply us with fire-wood, and that the country was no 
worse than much of that over which we had already trav- 
elled between Geezhega and Anadyrsk. He said thai 
he was entirely willing to undertake the trip, and woulo. 



304 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

go with his own team of dogs wherever we would lead 
the way. The priest also, who had been down the river 
in summer, believed the journey to be practicable, and 
said he would go himself if he could do any good. Upon 
the strength of this encouragement we gave the natives 
our final decision, showed them the letter which we 
brought from the Russian Governor at Geezhega autho- 
rizing us to demand men and sledges for all kinds of service, 
and told them that if they still refused to go we would 
send a special messenger to Geezhega and report their 
disobedience. This threat and the example of our Cos- 
sack Gregorie, who was known to be an experienced 
guide from the Okhotsk Sea to the Arctic Ocean, finally 
had the desired effect. Eleven men agreed to go, and 
we began at once to collect dog-food and provisions for 
an early start. We had as yet only the vaguest, most 
indefinite information with regard to the situation of the 
American party, and we determined to wait a few days 
until a Cossack named Kozhevin, who had gone to visit 
some Wandering Chookchees, should return. The priest 
was sure that he would bring later and more trustworthy 
intelligence, because the wandering natives throughout 
the whole country knew of the arrival of the mysterious 
white men, and would probably tell Kozhevin approxi- 
mately where they were. In the mean time we made 
some additions to our heavy suits of furs, prepared masks 
of squirrel-skin to be worn over the face in extremely low 
temperatures, and set all the women in the village at work 
upon a large fur tent. 

On Saturday, Jan. 20th, N. S., Kozhevin returned from 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



3°3 



his visit to the Chookchees north of Anadyrsk, bringing aa 
we expected later and fuller particulars with regard to the 
party of exiled Americans south of Behring's Straits. Ii 
consisted, according to the best Chookchee intelligence, of 
only five men, and was located on or near the Anadyi 
River, about one day's journey above its mouth. These 
five men were living, as we had, previously been told, in a 
little subterranean hut rudely constructed of bushes and 
boards, and entirely buried in drifted snow. They were 
said to be well supplied with provisions, and had a great 
many barrels, which the Chookchees supposed to contain 
" vodka," but which we presumed to be barrels of salt-beef. 
They made a fire, the natives said, in the most wonderful 
manner by burning "black stones in an iron box," while 
all the smoke came out mysteriously through a crooked 
iron tube which turned around when the wind blew ! In 
this vivid but comical description we of course recognized 
a coal stove and a pipe with a rotary funnel. They had 
also, Kozhevin was told, an enormous tame black bear, 
which they allowed to run loose around the house, and 
which chased away the Chookchees in a most energetic 
manner. When I heard this I could no longer restrain a 
hurrah of exultation. The party was made up of our old 
San Francisco comrades, and the tame black bear was Rob- 
inson's Newfoundland dog ! I had petted him a hundred 
times in America and had his picture among my photo- 
graphs. He was the dog of the Expedition. There could 
no longer be any doubt whatever that the party thus bur- 
rowed under the snow on the great steppes south of Behr« 
ing s Straits was the long talked of Anadyr River Explor- 



306 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ing Party, under the command of Lieut. Macrae ; and oui 
hearts beat fast with excitement as we thought of the sur 
prise which we would give our old friends and comrades 
by coming upon them suddenly in that desolate, God-for- 
saken region, almost two thousand miles away from the 
point where they supposed we had landed. Such a meet- 
ing would repay us tenfold for all the hardships of our 
Siberian life. 

Everything, by this time, was ready for a start. Our 
sledges were loaded five feet high with provisions and dog- 
food for thirty days ; our fur tent was completed and pack- 
ed away, to be used if necessary in intensely cold weather ; 
bags, overstockings, masks, thick sleeping-coats, snow- 
shovels, axes, rifles, and long Siberian snow-shoes were 
distributed around among the different sledges, and every- 
thing which Gregorie, Dodd, and I could think of was done 
to insure the success of the expedition. 

On Monday morning, Jan. 2 2d, the whole party assem- 
bled in front of the priest's house. For the sake of econo- 
mizing transportation, and sharing the fortunes of our men, 
whatever they might be, Dodd and I abandoned our pavo- 
skas, and drove our own loaded sledges. We did not mean 
to have the natives say that we compelled them to go and 
then avoided our share of work and hardships. The entire 
population of the village, men, women, and children, turn- 
ed out to see us off, and the street before the priest's house 
was blocked up with a crowd of dark -faced men in spotted 
fur coats, scarlet sashes, and fierce-looking fox-skin hoods, 
anxious-faced women running to and fro and bidding theii 
husbands and brothers good-by, eleven long, narrow 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 30J 

sledges piled high with dried fish and covered with yellow 
buckskir. and lashings of seal-skin thongs, and finally ? 
hundred and twenty- five shaggy wolfish dogs, who drown 
ed every other sound with their combined howls of fierce 
impatience. 

Our drivers went into the priest's house, and crossed 
themselves and prayed before the picture of the Saviour, 
as is their custom when starting on a long journey. Dodd 
and I bade good-by to the kind-hearted priest, and re- 
ceived the cordial " s' bokhem " (go with God), which is 
the Russian farewell ; and then springing upon our sledges, 
and releasing our frantic dogs, we went flying out of the 
village in a cloud of snow which glittered like powdered 
jewel-dust in the red sunshine. 

Beyond the two or three hundred miles of snowy 
desert which lay before us we could see, in imagination, 
a shadowy stove-pipe rising out of a bank of snow — the 
" San greal " of which we, as Arctic knights-errant, were 
in search. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

I will not detain the reader long with the first part of 
our journey from Anadyrsk to the Pacific Coast, as it was 
only a new and revised edition of our previous Siberian 
experience. Riding all day over the ice of the river, or 
across barren steppes, and camping out at night on the 
snow, in all kinds of weather, made up our life ; and its 
dreary monotony was only relieved by anticipations of a 
joyful meeting with our exiled friends, and the exciting 
consciousness that we were penetrating a country never 
before visited by civilized man. Day by day the fringe 
of alder-bushes along the river-bank grew lower and more 
scanty, and the great steppes that bordered the river be- 
came whiter and more barren as the river widened toward 
the sea. Finally we left behind us the last vestige of 
vegetation, and began the tenth day of our journey along 
a river which had increased to a mile in width, and amidst 
plains perfectly desolate of all life, which stretched away 
in one unbroken white expanse until they blended with 
the distant sky. It was not without uneasiness that I 
thought of the possibility of being overtaken by a ten 
days' storm in such a region as this. We had made, as 
nearly as we could estimate, since leaving Anadyrsk, 
about two hundred versts ; but whether we were any- 
where near the sea-coast or not we had no means of 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 309 

knowing. The weather for nearly a week had Lees 
generally clear, and not very cold ; but on the night of 
February ist the thermometer sank to — 35 , and we could 
find only just enough small green bushes to boil our tea- 
kettle. We dug everywhere in the snow in search of 
wood, but found nothing except moss, and a few small 
cranberry-bushes which would not burn. Tired with the 
long day's travel and the fruitless digging for wood, Dodd 
and I returned to camp, and threw ourselves down upon 
our bear-skins to drink tea. Hardly had Dodd put hig 
cup to his lips when I noticed that a curious, puzzled ex- 
pression came over his face, as if he found something 
singular and unusual in the taste of the tea. I was just 
about to ask him what was the matter, when he cried out 
in a joyful and surprised voice, " Tide-water ! The tea 
is salt ! " Thinking that perhaps a little salt might have 
been dropped accidentally into the tea, I sent the men 
down to the river for'some fresh ice, which we carefully 
melted. It was unquestionably salt. We had reached 
the tide-water of the Pacific, and the ocean itself could 
not be far distant. One more day must certainly bring 
us to the house of the American party, or to the mouth 
of the river. From all appearances we should find nc 
more wood ; and anxious to make the most of the clear 
weather, we slept only about six hours, and started on at 
midnight, by the light of a brilliant moon. 

On the eleventh day after our departure from Anadyrsk ; 
toward the close of the long twilight which succeeds an 
Arctic day, our little train of eleven sledges drew near the 
place where, from Chookchee accounts, we expected to 



3IO TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

find the long-exiled party of Americans. The night was 
clear, still, and intensely cold, the thermometer at sunset 
marking forty-four degrees below zero, and sinking rapidlj 
to — 50 as the rosy flush in the west grew fainter and 
fainter, and darkness settled down upon the vast steppe. 
Many times before, in Siberia and Kamtchatka, I had 
seen nature in her sterner moods and winter garb ; but 
never before had the elements of cold, barrenness, and 
desolation seemed to combine into a picture so dreary 
as the one which was presented to us that night near 
Behring's Straits. Far as eye could pierce the gathering 
gloom in every direction lay the barren steppe like a 
boundless ocean of snow, blown into long wave-like 
ridges by previous storms. There was not a tree, nor a 
bush, nor any sign of animal or vegetable life, to show 
that we were not travelling on a frozen ocean. All was 
silence and desolation. The country seemed abandoned 
by God and man to the Arctic Spirit, whose trembling 
banners of auroral light flared out fitfully in the north in 
token of his conquest and dominion. About eight 
o'clock the full moon rose huge and red in the east, cast- 
ing a lurid glare over the vast field of snow ; but as if it 
too were under the control of the Arctic Spirit, it was 
nothing more than the mockery of a moon, and was con- 
stantly assuming the most fantastic and varied shapes. 
Now it extended itself laterally into a long ellipse, then 
gathered itself up again into the semblance of a huge red 
urn, lengthened out to a long perpendicular bar with 
rounded ends, and finally became triangular. It can 
hardly be imagined what added wildness and strangeness 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



3" 



this blood red distorted moon gave to a scene already 
wild and strange. We seemed to have entered upon 
some frozen abandoned world where all the ordinary laws 
and phenomena of Nature were suspended, where ani- 
mal and vegetable life were extinct, and from which even 
the favor of the Creator had been withdrawn. Their, 
tense cold, the solitude, the oppressive silence, and the 
red, gloomy moonlight, like the glare of a distant but 
mighty conflagration, all united to excite in the mind 
feelings of awe, which were perhaps intensified by the 
consciousness that never before had any human being, 
save a few Wandering Chookchees, ventured in winter 
upon these domains of the Frost King. I^There was none 
of the singing, joking, and hallooing, with which our 
drivers were wont to enliven a night-journey. Stolid and 
unimpressible though they might be, there was something 
in the scene which even they felt and were silent. 
Hour after hour wore slowly and wearily away until mid- 
night. We had passed by more than twenty miles the 
point on the river where the party of Americans was sup- 
posed to be ; but no sign had been found of the subter- 
ranean house or its projecting stove-pipe, and the great 
steppe still stretched away before us, white, ghastly, and 
illimitable as ever. For nearly twenty-four hours we had 
travelled without a single stop, night or day, except one 
at sunrise to rest our tired dogs ; and the intense cold, 
fatigue, anxiety, and lack of warm food, began at last to 
tell upon our silent but suffering men. We realized for 
the first time the hazardous nature of the adventure in 
which we were engaged, and the almost absolute hope- 



312 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

lessness of the search which we were making for the loft 
American party. We had not one chance in a hundred 
of finding at midnight on that vast waste of snow a little 
buried hut, whose location we did not know within fifty 
miles, and of whose very existence we were by no means 
certain. Who could tell whether the Americans had not 
abandoned their subterranean house two months before, 
and removed with some friendly natives to a more com- 
fortable and sheltered situation ? We had heard nothing 
from them later than December ist, and it was now 
February. They might in that time have gone a hun- 
dred miles down the coast looking for a settlement, or 
have wandered far back into the interior with a band of 
Reindeer Chookchees. It was not probable that they 
would have spent four months in that dreary, desolate re- 
gion without making an effort to escape. Even if they 
were still in their old camp, however, how were we to 
find them ? We might have passed their little under- 
ground hut unobserved hours before, and might now be 
going farther and farther away from it, from wood, and 
from shelter. It had seemed a very easy thing before we 
left Anadyrsk, to simply go down the river until we came 
to a house on the bank, or saw a stove-pipe sticking out 
of a snow-drift ; but now, two hundred and fifty or three 
hundred miles from the settlement, in a temperature of 50° 
below zero, when our lives perhaps depended upon finding 
that little buried hut, we realized how wild had been our an- 
ticipations, and how faint were our prospects of success. 
The nearest wood was more than fifty miles behind us, 
and in our chilled and exhausted condition we dared not 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 313 

camp without a fire. We must go either forward or back 
— find the hut within four hours or abandon the search, 
and return as rapidly as possible to the nearest wood. 
Our dogs were beginning already to show unmistakable 
signs of exhaustion, and their feet, swollen with long travel, 
had cracked open between the toes and were now spot- 
ting the white snow with blood at every step. Unwilling 
to give up the search while there remained any hope, we 
still went on to the eastward, along the edges of high 
bare bluffs skirting the river, separating our sledges as 
widely as possible, and extending our line so as to cover 
a greater extent of ground. A full moon, now high in 
the heavens, lighted up the vast lonely plain on the north 
side of the river as brilliantly as day; but its whiteness was 
unbroken by any dark object, save here and there little 
hillocks of moss and swampy grass from which the snow 
had been swept by furious winds. 

We were all suffering severely from cold, and our fur 
hoods and the breasts of our fur coats were masses of 
white frost which had been formed by our breaths. I had 
put on two heavy reindeer-skin kookhlankas weighing in 
the aggregate about thirty pounds, belted them tightly 
about the waist with a sash, drawn their thick hoods up 
over my head and covered my face with a squirrel-skin 
mask ; but in spite of all I could only keep from freezing 
by running beside my sledge. Dodd said nothing, but was 
evidently disheartened and half frozen, while the natives 
sat silently upon their sledges as if they expected nothing 
and hoped for nothing. Only Gregorie and an old Chook- 

chee whom we had brcught with us as a guide showed any 
14 



314 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

energy or seemed to have any confidence in the ultimate 
discovery of the party. They went on in advance, dig- 
ging everywhere in the snow for wood, examining careful- 
ly the banks of the river, and making occasional detours 
into the snowy plain to the northward. At last Dodd, 
without saying anything to me, gave his spiked stick to 
one of the natives, drew his head and arms into the body 
of his fur coat, and lay down upon his sledge to sleep, re- 
gardless of my remonstrances, and paying no attention 
whatever to my questions. He was evidently becoming 
stupefied by the deadly chill, which struck through the 
heaviest furs, and which was constantly making insidious 
advances from the extremities to the seat of life. He pro 
bably would not live through the night unless he could be 
roused, and might not live two hours. Discouraged by 
his apparently hopeless condition, and exhausted by the 
constant struggle to keep warm, I finally lost all hope and 
reluctantly decided to abandon the search and camp. By 
stopping where we were, breaking up one of our sledges 
for fire-wood, and boiling a little tea, 1 thought that Dodd 
might be revived ; but to go on to the eastward seemed to 
be needlessly risking the lives of all without any apparent 
prospect of discovering the party or of finding wood. I 
had just given the order to the natives nearest me to camp, 
when I thought I heard a faint halloo in the distance. All 
the blood in my veins suddenly rushed with a great throb 
to the heart as I threw back my fur hood and listened. 
Again, a faint, long-drawn cry came back through the 
still atmosphere from the sledges in advance. My dogs 
pricked up their ears at the startling sound and dashed 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 315 

eagerly forward, and in a moment I came upon several 
of our leading drivers gathered in a little group arouno 
what seemed to be an old overturned whale-boat, which 
lay half buried in snow by the river's bank. The foot- 
print in the sand was not more suggestive to Robinson 
Crusoe than was this weather-beaten, abandoned whale- 
boat to us, for it showed that somewhere in the vicinity 
there yas shelter and life. One of the men a few mo- 
ments before had driven over some dark, hard object ir 
the snow, which he at first supposed to be a log of drift- 
wood ; but upon stopping to examine it, he found it to be 
an American whale-boat. If ever we thanked God from the 
bottom of our hearts, it was then. Brushing away with 
my mitten the long fringe of frost which hung to my eye- 
lashes, I looked eagerly around for a house, but Gregorie 
Had been quicker than I, and a joyful shout from a point 
a little farther down the river announced another discov- 
ery. I left my dogs to go where they chose, threw away 
my spiked stick, and started at a run in the direction of the 
sound. In a moment I saw Gregorie and the old Chook- 
chee standing beside a low mound of snow, about a hun- 
dred yards back from the river-bank, examining some dark 
object which projected from its smooth white surface. It 
was the long talked of, long looked for stove-pipe ! The 
Anadyr River party was found. 

The unexpected discovery late at night of this party of 
countrymen, when we had just given up all hope of 
shelter, and almost of life, was a God-send to our dis- 
heartened spirits, and I hardly knew in my excitement 
what I did. I remember now walking hastily back and 



316 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

forth in front of the snow-drift, repeating softly to myself 
at every step, " Thank God ! " "thank God ! " but at the 
time I was not conscious of anything except the great 
fact of our safety. Dodd, who had been roused from his 
half-frozen lethargy by the strong excitement of the dis- 
covery, now suggested that we try and find the entrance 
to the house and get in as quickly as possible, as he was 
nearly dead with the cold and exhaustion. There was 
no sound of life in the lonely snow-drift before us, and 
the inmates, if it had any, were evidently asleep. Seeing 
no sign anywhere of a door, I walked up on the drift, and 
shouted down through the stove-pipe in tremendous tones, 
" Halloo the house ! " — A startled voice from under my 
feet demanded " Who's there ? " 

" Come out and see ! Where's the door ? " 
My voice seemed to the astounded Americans inside 
to come out of the stove — a phenomenon which was 
utterly unparalleled in all their previous experience ; but 
they reasoned very correctly that any stove which could 
ask in good English for the door in the middle of the 
night had an indubitable right to be answered ; and they 
replied in a hesitating and half-frightened tone that the 
door was " on the southeast corner." This left us 
about as wise as before. In the first place we did not 
know which way southeast was, and in the second a 
snow-drift could not properly be described as having a 
corner. I started around the stove-pipe, however, in a 
circle, with the hope of finding some sort of an entrance. 
The inmates had dug a deep ditch or trench about thirty 
feet in length for a doorway, and had covered it ovej 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 31, 

with sticks and reindeer-skins to keep out the drifting 
snow. Stepping incautiously upon this frail roof, I fell 
through just as one of the startled men was coming out 
in his shirt and drawers, holding a candle above his head, 
and peering through the darkness of the tunnel to see 
who would enter. The sudden descent through the roof 
of such an apparition as I knew myself to be, was not 
calculated to restore the steadiness of startled nerves. I 
had on two heavy " kookhlankas " which swelled out my 
figure to gigantic proportions, two thick reindeer-skin 
hoods with long frosty fringes of black bear-skin were 
pulled up over my head, a squirrel-skin mask frozen into 
a sheet of ice concealed my face, and nothing but the 
eyes peering out through tangled masses of frosty hair, 
showed that the furs contained a human being. The 
man took two or three frightened steps backward and 
nearly dropped his candle. I came in such a " question- 
able shape " that he might well demand " whether my 
intents were wicked or charitable ! " As I recognized his 
face, however, and addressed him again in English, he 
stopped ; and tearing off my mask and fur hoods I spoke 
my name. Never was there such rejoicing as that which 
then took place in that little underground cellar, as I 
recognized in the exiled party two of my old comrades 
and friends, to whom eight months before I had bid good- 
by, as the " Olga" sailed out of the " Golden Gate" 
of San Francisco. 1 1 little thought when I shook hands 
with Harder and Robinson then, that I should next meet 
thern at night, in a little snow-covered cellar, on the great 
lonely steppes of the lower Anadyr. As soon as we ha>l 



318 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Jaken oft our heavy furs and seated ourselves beside a 
warm fire, we began to feel the sudden reaction which 
necessarily followed twenty-four hours of such exposure, 
suffering, and anxiety. Our over-strained nerves gave 
way all at once, and in ten minutes I could hardly raise 
i cup of coffee to my lips. Ashamed of such womanish 
weakness, I tried to conceal it from the Americans, and I 
presume they do not know to this day tha't Dodd and I 
nearly fainted several times within the first twenty minutes, 
from the suddenness of the change from 50 below zero 
to 70 above, and the nervous exhaustion produced by 
lack of sleep and anxiety. We felt an irresistible craving 
for some powerful stimulant and called for brandy, but 
there was no liquor of any kind to be had. This weak- 
ness, however, soon passed away, and we proceeded to 
relate to each other our respective histories and adven- 
tures, while our drivers huddled together in a mass at one 
end of the little hut and refreshed themselves with hot tea. 
The party of Americans which we had thus found 
buried in the snow, more than three hundred versts from 
Anadyrsk, had been landed there by one of the Com- 
pany's vessels, some time in September. Their inten- 
tion had been to ascend the river in a whale-boat until 
they should reach some settlement, and then try to open 
communication with us; but winter set in so suddenly, 
and the river froze over so unexpectedly, that this plan 
could not be carried out. Having no means of trans- 
portation but their boat, they could do nothing more than 
build themselves a house, and go into winter quarters, 
with the faint hope that, some time before spring, Majoi 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 319 

Abaza would send a party of men to their relief. The* 
had built a sort of burrow underground, with bushes, drift- 
wood, and a few boards which had been left by the vessel, 
and there they had been living by lamp-light for five 
months, without ever seeing the face of a civilized human 
being The Wandering Chookchees had soon found out 
their situation, and frequently visited them on reindeer 
sledges, and brought them fresh meat, and blubber which 
they used for lamp-oil ; but these natives, on account of 
a superstition which I have previously mentioned, refused 
to sell them any living reindeer, so that all their efforts 
to procure transportation were unavailing. The party 
originally consisted of five men — Macrae, Arnold, Robin- 
son, Harder, and Smith ; but Macrae and Arnold, about 
three weeks previous to our arrival, had organized them- 
selves into a "forlorn hope," and had gone away with a 
large band of Wandering Chookchees in search of some 
Russian settlement. Since that time nothing had been 
heard from them, and Robinson, Harder, and Smith had 
been living alone. 

Such was the situation when we found the party. Of 
course, there was nothing to be done but carry these three 
men and all their stores back to Anadyrsk, where we 
should probably find Macrae and Arnold awaiting our 
arrival. The Chookchees came to Anadyrsk, I knew, 
every winter, for the purpose of trade, and would probably 
bring the two Americans with them. 

After three days spent in resting, refitting, and packing 
up, we started back with the rescued party, and on Feb 
ruary 6th we returned in safety to Anadyrsk. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

All the inhabitants of the settlement were in the 
streets to meet us when we returned ; but we were disap- 
pointed not to see among them the faces of Macrae and 
Arnold. Many bands of Chookchees from the lower 
Anadyr had arrived at the village, but nothing had been 
heard of the missing men. Forty-five days had now 
elapsed since they left their camp on the river, and, un- 
less they had died or been murdered, they ought long 
since to have arrived. I would have sent a party in 
search of them, but I had not the slightest clue as to the. 
direction in which they had gone, or the intentions of the 
party who had carried them away ; and to look for a band 
of Wandering Chookchees on those great steppes was as 
hopeless as to look for a missing vessel in the middle of 
the Pacific Ocean, and far more dangerous. We could 
only wait, therefore, and hope for the best. We spent 
the first week after our return in resting, writing up our 
journals, and preparing a report of our explorations, to 
be forwarded by special courier to the Major. During 
this time great numbers of wild, wandering natives — 
Chookchees, Lamootkees, and a few Koraks — came into 
the settlement to exchange their furs and walrus teeth for 
tobacco, and gave us an excellent opportunity of studying 
their various characteristics and mcdes of life. The 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 32 J 

Wandering Chookchees, who visited us in the greatest 
numbers, were evidently the most powerful tribe in North- 
eastern Siberia, and impressed us very favorably with theii 
general appearance and behavior. Except for their dress, 
they could hardly have been distinguished from North 
American Indians — many of them being as tall, athletic, 
and vigorous specimens of savage manhood as I had evei 
seen. They did not differ in any essential particular 
from the Wandering Koraks, whose customs, religion, 
and mode of life I have already described. 

The Lamootkees, however, were an entirely different 
race, and resembled the Chookchees only in their nomadic 
habits. All the natives ill Northeastern Siberia, except 
the Kamtchadals, Chooances, and Yookaghirs, who are 
partially Russianized, may be referred to one or the other 
of three great classes. The first of these, which may be 
called the North American Indian class, comprises the 
Wandering and settled Chookchees and Koraks, and cov- 
ers that part of Siberia lying between the 160th meridian 
of east longitude and Behring's Straits. It is the only class 
which has ever made a successful stand against Rus- 
sian invasion, and embraces without doubt the bravest, 
most independent savages in all Siberia. I do not think 
that this class numbers altogether more than six or eight 
thousand souls, although the estimates of the Russians are 
much larger. 

The second class comprises all the natives in Siberia who 
are evidently and unmistakably of Chinese origin, includ- 
ing the Tongoos, the Lamootkees, the Monzhours, and the 

G ilyaks of the Amoor River. It covers a greater extent of 
14* 



322 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ground probably than both of the other classes together, 
its representatives being found as far west as the Yenesei, 
and as far east as Anadyrsk, in 169 E. Ion. The only 
branches of this class which I have ever seen are the 
Lamootkees and the Tongoos. They are almost exactly 
alike, both being very slenderly built men, with straight 
black hair, dark olive complexions, no beards, and more 
or less oblique eyes. They do not resemble a Chookchee 
or a Korak any more than a Chinaman resembles a Ca- 
manche or a Sioux. Their dress is very peculiar. It con- 
sists of fur hoods, tight fur pantaloons, short deer-skin 
boots, Masonic aprons, made of soft flexible buckskin and 
elaborately ornamented with beads and pieces of metal, 
and singular looking frock-coats cut in very civilized style 
out of deer-skin, and ornamented with long strings of col- 
ored reindeer hair made into chenille. You can never 
see one without having the impression that he is dressed 
in some kind of a regalia or uniform. The men and wo- 
men resemble each other very much in dress and appear- 
ance, and by a stranger cannot be distinguished apart. 
Like the Chookchees and Koraks, they are Reindeer No- 
mads, but differ somewhat from the former in their mode 
of life. Their tents are smaller and differently construct- 
ed, and instead of dragging their tent-poles from place to 
place as the Chookchees do, they leave them standing 
when they break camp, and either cut new ones or avail 
themselves of frames left standing by other bands. Tent- 
pcles in this way serve as landmarks, and a day's journey 
is from one collection of frames to another. Few of the 
Tongoos or Lamootkees own many deer. Two or three 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 323 

hundred are considered to be a large herd, and a man whc 
owns more than that is regarded as a sort of millionaire. 
Such herds as are found among the Koraks in Northern 
Kamtchatka, numbering from five to • ten thousand, are 
never to be seen west of Geezhega. The Tongoos, how- 
ever, use their few deer to better advantage and in a great- 
er variety of ways than do the Koraks. The latter seldom 
ride their deer or train them to carry packs, while the Ton- 
goos do both. The Tongoos are of a mild, amiable dis- 
position, easily governed and easily influenced, and seem 
to have made their way over so large an extent of country 
more through the sufferance of other tribes than through 
any aggressive power or disposition of their own. Their 
original religion was Shamanism, but they now profess al- 
most universally the Greco-Russian faith and receive 
Christian names. They acknowledge also their subjec- 
tion to the authority of the Czar, and pay a regular annu- 
al tribute in furs. Nearly all the Siberian squirrel-skins 
which reach the European market are bought by Russian 
traders from Wandering Tongoos around the Okhotsk Sea. 
When I left the settlement of Okhotsk, in the fall of 1867, 
there were more than seventy thousand squirrel -skins there 
in the hands of one Russian merchant, and this was only 
a small part of the whole number caught by the Tongoos 
during that summer. The Lamootkees, who are first 
cousins to the Tongoos, are fewer in number, but live in 
precisely the same way. I never met more than three 01 
four bands during two years of almost constant travel in 
all parts of Northeastern Siberia, 



324 TENT LIFE IN SIITERIA. 

The third great class of natives is the Turkish. It 
comprises only the Yakoots, who are settled chiefly along 
the Lena River from its head-waters to the Arctic Ocean. 
Their origin is unknown, but their language is said to resem- 
ble the Turkish or modern Osmanli so closely that a Con- 
stantinopolitan of the lower class could converse tolerably 
with a Yakoot from the Lena. I regret that I was not 
enough interested in comparative philology while in 
Siberia to compile a vocabulary and grammar of the 
Yakoot language. I had excellent opportunities for doing 
so, but was not aware at that time of its close resemblance 
to the Turkish, and looked upon it only as an unintelligible 
jargon which proved nothing but the active participation 
of the Yakoots in the construction of the Tower of Babel. 
The bulk of this tribe is settled immediately around the 
Asiatic pole of cold, and they can unquestionably endure 
a lower temperature with less suffering than any other 
natives in Siberia. They are called by the Russian 
explorer Vrangell, "iron men," and well do they deserve 
the appellation. The thermometer at Yakootsk, where 
several thousands of them are settled, averages during the 
three winter months thirty-seven degrees below zero ; but 
this intense cold does not seem to occasion them the 
slightest inconvenience. I have seen them in a temper- 
ature of— 40 , clad only in a shirt and one sheep-skin 
coat, standing quietly in the street, talking and laughing 
as if it were a pleasant summer's day and they were enjoy- 
ing the balmy air ! They are the most thrifty, industrious 
natives in all Northern Asia. It is a proverbial saying in 
Siberia, that if you take a Yakoot, strip him naked, and 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 325 

set him down in the middle of a great desolate steppe, and 
then return to that spot at the expiration of a year, you 
will find him living in a large, comfortable house, surround- 
ed by barns and hay-stacks, owning herds of horses and 
cattle, and enjoying himself like a patriarch. They have 
all been more or less civilized by Russian intercourse, and 
have adopted Russian manners and the religion of the 
Greek Church. Those settled along the Lena cultivate 
rye and hay, keep herds of Siberian horses and cattle, and 
live principally upon coarse black bread, milk, butter, and 
horse-flesh. They are notorious gluttons. All are very 
skilful in the use of the " topor " or short Russian axe, and 
with that instrument alone will go into a primeval forest, 
cut down trees, hew out timber and planks, and put up a 
comfortable house, complete even to panelled doors and 
window-sashes. They are the only natives in all North- 
eastern Siberia who are capable of doing and willing to 
do hard continuous work. 

These three great classes, viz., American Indian natives, 
Chinese natives, and Turko-yakoot natives, comprise all 
the aboriginal inhabitants of Northeastern Siberia except 
the Kamtchadals, the Chooances, and the Yookaghirs. 
These last have been so modified by Russian influence, 
that it is hard to tell to which class they are most nearly 
allied, and the ethnologist will shortly be relieved from all 
further consideration of the problem by their inevitable 
extinction. The Chooances and Yookaghirs have already 
become mere fragments of tribes, and their languages 
will perish with the present generation. 

The natives of whom we saw most at Anadyrsk were 



326 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

as I have already said, the Chookchees. They frequently 
called upon us in large parties, and afforded us a great 
deal of amusement by their naive and child-like comments 
upon Americans, American instruments, and the curious 
American things generally which we produced for their 
inspection. I shall never forget the utter astonishment 
with which a band of them once looked through my field- 
glass. I had been trying it one clear cold day out of 
doors, and quite a crowd of Chookchees and Yookaghirs 
had gathered around me to see what I was doing. ( Ob- 
serving their curiosity, I gave the glass to one of them and 
told him to look through it at another native who happened 
to be standing out on the plain, at a distance of perhaps 
two hundred yards. The expression of blank half-incred- 
ulous surprise which gradually came over his features as 
he saw that native brought up, apparently within a few 
feet, was irresistibly comical. He did not dream for a 
moment that it was a mere optical illusion ; he supposed 
that the wonderful instrument had actually transported 
the man physically from a distance of a hundred yards up 
to the place where he stood, and as he held the glass to 
his eyes with one hand, he stretched out the other to try 
r.nd catch hold of him. Finding to his great astonishment 
,hat he could not, he removed the glass, and saw the man 
standing quietly as before, two hundred yards away. The 
idea then seemed to occur to him that if he could only 
get this mysterious instrument to his eyes quickly enough, 
he would surprise the man in the very act of coming up 
•—catch him perhaps about half-way — and find out how it 
was done. He accordingly raised the glass toward his 



TKNT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 327 

face very slowly (watching the man meanwhile inuptiv, 
to see that he took no unfair advantage and did not start 
too soon) until it was within an inch of his eyes, and then 
looked through it suddenly. But it was of no use. The 
man was right beside him again, but how he came there 
he didn't know. Perhaps he could catch him if he made 
a sudden dash, and he tried it. This, however, was no 
more successful than his previous experiments, and the 
other natives looked at him in perfect amazement, won- 
dering what he was trying to do with all these singular 
motions. He endeavored to explain to them in great ex- 
citement that the man had been brought up apparently 
within arm's length, and yet he could not touch him. His 
comrades of course denied indignantly that the man had 
moved at all, and they engaged in a furious dispute as to 
whether this innocent and unconscious man had been 
anywhere near them or not. The native who maintained 
the affirmative appealed to me ; but, convulsed with laugh- 
ter, I could make no reply, and he started off at a run, to 
see the man and find out whether he had been brought 
up or not, and how it felt to be transported over two hun- 
dred yards of space in an instant of time ! We who are 
familiar with these discoveries of science can hardly real- 
ize how they appear to a wholly uneducated savage ; but 
if a superior race of beings should come from the planet 
Jupiter and show us a mysterious instrument which ena- 
bled a man to be in two different places at the same time, 
we would understand the sensations of a poor Chookchee 
in looking through a field-glass. 

Soon after this I happened to be encamped one night 



328 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

on a great plain near Anadyrsk, with a pai ty of these 
same natives ; and having received a note from Dodd by 
a special messenger, I was engaged in reading it by the 
camp-fire. At several humorous passages I burst out 
into a loud laugh • whereupon the natives punched each 
other with their elbows and pointed significantly at me, as 
much as to say, " Just look at the crazy American ! What's 
the matter with him now ? " Finally one of them, an old 
gray-haired man, asked me what I was laughing about. 
"Why, " said I, " I am laughing at this," and pointed to 
the piece of paper. The old man thought about it for a 
moment, compared notes with the others, and they all 
thought about it ; but no one seemed to succeed in getting 
any light as to the cause of my incomprehensible laughter. 
In a few moments the old man picked up a half-burned 
stick which was lying by the fire and said, "Now sup- 
pose I should look at this stick for a minute and then 
laugh ; what would you think ?" — " Why," said I candidly, 
"'I should think you were a fool." — "Well," he rejoined 
with grave satisfaction, " that's just exactly what I think of 
you ! " He seemed to be very much pleased to find that 
our several opinions of such insane conduct so exactly 
coincided. Looking at a stick and laughing, and looking at 
a piece of paper and laughing, seemed to him equally 
absurd. The languages of the Chookchees and Koraks 
have never been reduced to writing; nor, so far as I 
know, do either of those tribes ever attempt to express 
ideas by signs or pictures. Written thought is to many of 
them an impossible conception. It can be imagined, per- 
haps, with what wonder and baffled curiosity they pore 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 329 

over the illustrated newspapers which are occasionally 
given to them by the sailors of whaling vessels which visif 
the coast. Some of the pictures they recognize as repre 
scntations of things with which they are acquainted ; but 
by far the greater number are as incomprehensible as the 
hieroglyphics of the Aztecs. I remember that a Korak 
once brought to me an old tattered fashion-plate from 
" Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper," containing three 01 
four full-length figures of imaginary ladies, in the widest ex- 
pansion of crinoline which fashion at that time prescribed. 
The poor Korak said he had often wondered what those curi- 
ous objects could be ; and now, as I was an American, per- 
haps I could tell him. He evidently had not the most re- 
mote suspicion that they were intended to represent 
human beings. I told him that those curious objects, as 
he called them, were American women. He burst out in- 
to a "tyee-e-e-e" of amazement, and asked with a won- 
dering look, ^ Are all the women in your country as big 
as that at the bottom ? " It was a severe reflection 
upon our ladies' dress, and I did not venture to tell him 
that the bigness was artificial, but merely replied sadly 
that they were. He looked curiously down at my feet, 
and then at the picture, and then again at my feet, as if he 
were trying to trace some resemblance between the 
American man and the American woman ; but he failed 
to do it, and wisely concluded that they must be of widely 
different species. 

The pictures from these papers are sometimes put to 
curious uses. In the hut of a christianized but ignorant 
native near Anadyrsk, I once saw an engraved portrai* 



$$0 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

cut from "Harper's Weekly," of Maj. Gen. Dix, posted 
up in a corner of tne room and worshipped as a Russian 
saint ! A gilded candle was burning before his smoky 
fe itures, and every night and morning a dozen natives 
said their prayers to a major-general in the United 
States Army ! It is the only instance I believe on record, 
where a major-general has been raised to the dignity of 
a saint without even being dead. St. George of England, 
we are told, was originally a corrupt army contractor of 
Cappadocia, but he was not canonized until long after 
his death, when the memory of his contracts was no more. 
For Maj. -Gen. Dix was reserved the peculiar privilege of 
being at the same time a United States Minister in Paris 
and a saint in Siberia ! 



CHAPTER XXX. 

AN ARCTIC AURORA. 

Among the few pleasures which reward the traveller 
for the hardships and dangers of life in the far north, there 
are none which are brighter or longer remembered than 
the magnificent Auroral displays which occasionally 
illumine the darkness of the long polar night, and light 
up with a celestial glory the whole blue vault of heaven. 
No other natural phenomenon is so grand, so mysterious. 
so terrible in its unearthly splendor as this ; the veil 
which conceals from mortal eyes the glory of the eternal 
throne seems drawn aside, and the awed beholder is lifted 
out of the atmosphere of his daily life into the immediate 
presence of God. 

On the 26th of February, while we were all yet living 
together at Anadyrsk, there occurred one of the grandest 
displays of the Arctic Aurora which had been observed 
there for more than fifty years, and which exhibited such 
unusual and extraordinary brilliancy that even the natives 
were astonished. It was a cold, dark, but clear winter's 
night, and the sky in the earlier part of the evening 
showed no signs of the magnificent illumination which 
was already being prepared. A few streamers wavered 
now and then in the North, and a faint radiance like that 
of the rising moon shone above the dark belt of shrub- 
bery which bordered the river ; but this was a common 



332 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

occurrence, and it excited no notice or remark. Late in 
the evening, just as we were preparing to go to bed, Dodd 
happened to go out of doors for a moment to look after 
his dogs ; but no sooner had he reached the outer door 
of the entry than he came rushing back, his face ablaze 
with excitement, shouting " Kennan ! Robinson ! Come 
out, quick ! " With a vague impression that the village 
must be on fire, I sprang up, and without stopping to put 
on any furs, ran hastily out, followed closely by Robin- 
son, Harder, and Smith. As we emerged into the open 
air there burst suddenly upon our startled eyes the grand- 
est exhibition of vivid dazzling light and color of which 
the mind can conceive. The whole universe seemed to 
be on fire. A broad arch of brilliant prismatic colors 
spanned the heavens from east to west like a gigantic 
rainbow, with a long fringe of crimson and yellow stream- 
ers stretching up from its convex edge to the very 
zenith. At short intervals of one or two seconds, wide, 
luminous bands, parallel with the arch, rose suddenly out 
of the northern horizon and swept with a swift, steady 
majesty across the whole heavens, like long breakers of 
phosphorescent light rolling in from some limitless ocean 
of space. 

Every portion of the vast arch was momentarily wa- 
vering, trembling, and changing color, and the brilliant 
streamers which fringed its edge swept back and forth 
in great curves, like the fiery sword of the angel at the 
gate of Eden. In a moment the vast Auroral rainbow, 
with all its wavering streamers, began to move slowly up 
toward the zenith, and a second arch of equal brilliancy 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. $$3 

formed directly under it, shooting lip another long serried 
row of slender colored lances toward the North Star, like 
a battalion of the celestial host presenting arms to its 
commanding angel. Every instant the display increased 
in unearthly grandeur. The luminous bands revolved 
swiftly, like the spokes of a great wheel of light across 
the heavens ; the streamers hurried back and forth with 
swift, tremulous motion from the ends of the arches to 
the centre, and now and then a great wave of crimson 
would surge up from the north and fairly deluge the 
whole sky with color, tingeing the white snowy earth far 
and wide with its rosy reflection. But as the words of 
the prophecy, " And the heavens shall be turned to blood," 
formed themselves upon my lips, the crimson suddenly 
vanished, and a lighting flash of vivid orange startled us 
with its wide, all-pervading glare, which extended even 
to the southern horizon, as if the whole volume of the 
atmosphere had suddenly taken fire. I even held my 
breath a moment, as I listened for the tremendous crash 
of thunder which it seemed to me must follow this sudden 
burst of vivid light ; but in heaven or earth there was not 
a sound to break the calm silence of night, save the has- 
tily-muttered prayers of the frightened native at my side, 
as he crossed himself and kneeled down before the visi- 
ble majesty of God. I could not imagine any possible 
addition which even Almighty power could make to the 
grandeur of the Aurora as it now appeared. The rapid 
alternations of crimson, blue, green, and yellow in the 
sky were reflected so vividly from the white surface of 
the snow, that the whole world seemed now steeped in 



334 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

blood, and then quivering in an atmosphere of pale, ghastly 
green, through which shone the unspeakable glories of the 
mighty crimson and yellow arches. But the end was 
not yet. As we watched with upturned faces the swift 
ebb and flow of these great celestial tides of colored 
light, the last seal of the glorious revelation was suddenly 
broken, and both arches were simultaneously shivered 
into a thousand parallel perpendicular bars, every one 
of which displayed in regular order, from top to bottom, 
the seven primary colors of the solar spectrum. From 
horizon to horizon there now stretched two vast curving 
bridges of colored bars, across which we almost expected 
to see, passing and repassing, the bright inhabitants of 
another world. Amid cries of astonishment and exclama 
tions of " God have mercy ! " from the startled natives, 
these innumerable bars began to move, with a swift dan- 
cing motion, back and forth along the whole extent of 
both arches, passing each other from side to side with 
such bewildering rapidity, that the eye was lost in the 
attempt to follow them. The whole concave of heaven 
seemed transformed into one great revolving kaleidoscope 
of shattered rainbows. Never had I even dreamed of 
such an aurora as this, and I am not ashamed to confess 
that its magnificence at that moment overawed and 
frightened me. The whole sky, from zenith to horizon, 
was " one molten mantling sea of color and fire, crimson 
and purple, and scarlet and green, and colors for which 
there are no words in language and ro ideas in the mind, 
— things which can only be conceived while they are visi- 
ble." The "signs and portents" in the heavens were 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 335 

grand enough to herald the destruction of a world : 
flashes of rich quivering color, covering half the sky for 
an instant and then vanishing like summer lightning ; 
brilliant green streamers shooting swiftly but silently up 
across the zenith ; thousands of variegated bars sweeping 
past each other in two magnificent arches, and great 
luminous waves rolling in from the inter-planetary spaces 
and breaking in long lines of radiant glory upon the shal- 
low atmosphere of a darkened world. 

With the separation of the two arches into component 
bars it reached its utmost magnificence, and from that 
time its supernatural beauty slowly but steadily faded. 
The first arch broke up, and soon after it the second ; the 
flashes of color appeared less and less frequently ; the 
luminous bands ceased to revolve across the zenith ; and 
in an hour nothing remained in the dark starry heavens 
to remind us of the Aurora, except a few faint Magellan 
clouds of luminous vapor. 

I am painfully conscious of my inability to describe as 
they should be described the splendid phenomena of a 
great polar Aurora ; but such magnificent effects cannot 
be expressed in a mathematical formula, nor can an inex- 
perienced artist reproduce, with a piece of charcoal, the 
brilliant coloring of a Turner landscape. I have given 
only faint hints, which the imagination of the reader must 
fill up. But be assured that no description, however 
faithful, no flight of the imagination, however exalted, can 
begin to do justice to a spectacle of such unearthly 
grandeur. Until man drops his vesture of flesh and 
stands in the presence of Deity, he will see no more 



$$6 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA* 

striking manifestation of the "glory -of the Lord, which is 
terrible," than that presented by a brilliant exhibition of 
the Arctic Aurora. 

The month of February wore slowly away, and ft larch 
found us still living in Anadyrsk, without any news from 
the Major, or from the missing men, Arnold and Macrae. 
Fifty-seven days had now elapsed since they left their 
camp on the lower Anadyr, and we began to fear that 
they would never again be seen. Whether they had 
starved, or frozen to death on some great desolate plain 
south of Behring's Straits, or been murdered by the 
Chookchees, we could not conjecture, but their long 
absence was a proof that they had met with some misfor 
tune. 

I was not at all satisfied with the route over which we 
had passed from Shestakova to Anadyrsk, on account 
of its barrenness, and the impossibility of transporting 
heavy telegraph poles over its great snowy steppes from 
the few wooded rivers by which it was traversed. I 
accordingly started from Anadyrsk with five dog-sledges 
on March 4th, to try and find a better route between the 
Anadyr and the head- waters of the Penzhina River. 
Three days after our departure we met, on the road to 
Penzhina, a special messenger from Geezhega, bringing a 
letterfrom the Major dated Okhotsk, Jan. 19th. Enclosed 
were letters from Col. Bulkley, announcing the landing of 
the Anadyr River party under Lieut Macrae, and a map 
showing the location of their camp. The Major wrote as 
follows : " In case — what God forbid — Macrae and party 
have not arrived at Anadyrsk, you will immediately, upcn 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 337 

the receipt of this letter, do your utmost to deliver them 
from their too long winter-quarters at the mouth of the 
Anadyr, where they were landed in September. I was 
told that Macrae would be landed only in case of perfect 
certainty to reach Anadyrsk in boats, and I confess I don't 
like such surprises as Colonel Bulkley has made me now. 
For the present our duty consists in doing our utmost to 
extricate them from where they are, and you must get 
every dog-sledge you can, stuff them with dog-food and 
provisions, and go at once in search of Macrae's camp." 
These directions I had already anticipated and carried 
out, and Macrae's party, or at least all I could find of it, 
was now living in Anadyrsk. When the Major wrote this 
letter, however, he did not suppose that Dodd and I 
would hear of the landing of the party through the Wan- 
dering Chookchees, or that we would think of going in 
search of them without orders. He knew that he had 
told us particularly not to attempt to explore the Anadyr 
River until another season, and did not expect that we 
would go beyond the last settlement. I wrote a hasty 
note to Dodd upon the icy runner of my overturned 
sledge — freezing two fingers in the operation — and sent, 
the courier on to Anadyrsk with the letters. The mail 
also included letters to me from Capt. Scammon, comman- 
der of the Company's fleet, and one from my naturalistic 
friend Dall, who had returned with the vessels to San 
Francisco, and had written me while stopping a few days 
at Petropavlovski. He begged me, by all the sacred in- 
terests of Science, not to let a single bug or living thing 
of any kind escape my vigilant eye ; but, as I read his 
15 



33% TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

letter that night by the camp-fire, I thought with a smile 
that snowy Siberian steppes and temperatures of 30 and 
40 below zero were not very favorable to the growth and 
dispersion of bugs, nor to efforts for their capture and 
preservation. 

I will not weary the reader with a detailed account of 
the explorations which Lieut. Robinson and I made in 
search of a more practicable route for our line between 
the Penzhina River and Anadyrsk. We found that the 
river system of the Anadyrsk was divided from that of the 
Penzhina only by a low mountain ridge, which could be 
easily passed, and that, by following up certain tributaries 
of the latter, crossing the water-shed, and descending one 
of the branches of the Anadyr, we should have almost 
unbroken water-communication between the Okhotsk Sea 
and Behring's Straits. Along these rivers timber was gen- 
erally abundant, and where there was none, poles could 
be distributed easily in rafts. The route thus indicated 
was everything which could be desired ; and, much grati- 
fied by the results of our labors, we returned on March 
13 th to Anadyrsk. 

We were overjoyed to learn from the first man who 
met us after we entered the settlement that Macrae and 
Arnold had arrived, and in five minutes we were shaking 
them by the hand, congratulating them upon their safe 
arrival, and overwhelming them with questions as to their 
travels and adventures, and the reasons of their long ab- 
sence. 

For sixty-four days they had been living with the Wan- 
dering Chookchees, and making their way slowly and by a 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 339 

circuitous route toward Anadyrsk. They had generally 
been well treated, but the band with whom they travelled 
had been in no hurry to reach the settlement, and had 
been carrying them at the rate of ten or twelve miles a 
day all over the great desolate steppes which lie south of 
the Anadyr River. They had experienced great hardships ; 
nad lived upon reindeer's entrails and tallow for weeks at 
a time ; had been alive almost constantly with vermin ; 
had spent the greater part of two long months in smoky 
Chookchee pologs, and had despaired, sometimes, of ever 
reaching a Russian settlement or seeing again a civilized 
human being ; but hope and courage had sustained them 
through it all, and they had finally arrived at Anadyrsk 
safe and well. The sum total of their baggage when 
they drove into the settlement was a quart bottle of whiskey 
wrapped up in an American flag ! As soon as we were 
all together, we raised the flag on a pole over our little 
log-house, made a whiskey punch out of the' liquor which 
had traversed half Northeastern Siberia, and drank it in 
honor of the men who had lived sixty-four days with the 
Wandering Chookchees, and carried the stars and stripes 
through the wildest, least known region on the face of the 
globe. 

Having now accomplished all that could be done in the 
way of exploration, we began making preparations for a 
return to Geezhega. The Major had directed me to meet 
him there with Macrae, Arnold, Robinson, and Dodd, as 
soon as the first of April, and the month of March was 
now rapidly drawing to a close. 

On the 20th we packed up our stores, and bidding good 



34° TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

by to the kind-hearted, hospitable people of Anadyisk, 
we set out with a long train of sledges for the coast of 
€d.q Okhotsk Sea. 

Our journey was monotonous and uneventful, and on 
the second of April, late at night, w r e left behind us the 
white desolate steppe of the Paren, and drew near the 
little flat-topped yourt on the Malmofka, which was only 
twenty-five versts from Geezhega. Here we met fresh 
men, dogs, and sledges, sent out to meet us by the Major, 
and, abandoning our loaded sledges and tired dogs, we 
took seats upon the light "narts" of the Geezhega Cos- 
sacks, and dashed away by the light of a brilliant Aurora 
toward the settlement. 

About one o'clock we heard the distant barking of dogs, 
and in a few moments we rushed furiously into the silent 
village, and stopped before the house of the Russian mer- 
chant Vorrebeoff, where we had lived the previous fall, 
and where we expected to find the Major. I sprang from 
my sledge, and groping my way through the entry into a 
warm dark room, I shouted "Fstavaitia" to arouse the 
sleeping inmates. Suddenly some one rose up from the 
floor at my feet, and grasping me by the arm, exclaimed 
in a strangely familiar voice, "Kennan, is that you?" 
Startled and bewildered with half-incredulous recognition, 
I c^uld only reply "Bush, is that you?" and, when a 
sleepy boy came in with a light, he was astonished to find 
a man dressed in heavy frosty furs embracing another who 
was clad only in a linen shirt and drawers. 

There was a joyful time in that log-house when the Ma- 
jor, Bush, Macrae, Arnold, Robinson, Dodd, and I gath- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 34 1 

ered around a steaming " samovar " or tea-urn which stood 
on a pine table in the centre of the room, and discussed 
the adventures, haps, and mishaps of our first Arctic 
winter. Some of us had come from the extremity of Kara- 
tchatka, some from the frontier of China, and some from 
Behring's Straits, and we all met that night in Geezhega, 
and congratulated ourselves and each other upon the suc- 
cessful exploration of the whole route of the proposed 
Russo-American Telegraph, from Anadyr Bay to the 
Amoor River. The different members of the party there 
assembled had, in seven months, travelled in the aggre- 
gate almost ten thousand miles. 

The results of our winter's work were briefly as follows: 
Bush and Mahood, after leaving the Major and me at 
Petropavlovski, had gone on to the Russian settlement 
of Nikolaevsk, at the mouth of the Amoor River, and had 
entered promptly upon the exploration of the west coast 
of the Okhotsk Sea. They had travelled with the 
Wandering Tongoos thiongh the densely-timbered region 
between Nikolaevsk and Aian, ridden on the backs of 
reindeer over the rugged mountains of the Stanavoi range 
south of Okhotsk, and had finally met the Major at the 
latter place on the 2 2d of February. The Major had 
explored the whole north coast of the Okhotsk Sea 
alone, and had made a visit to the Russian city of Ya- 
kootsk, six hundred versts west of Okhotsk, in quest of 
laborers and horses. He had ascertained the possibility 
of hiring a thousand Yakoot laborers in the settlements 
along the Lena River, at the rate of sixty dollars a yeai 
for each man, and of purchasing there as many Siberian 



342 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

horses as we should require at very reasonable prices. 
He had located a route for the line from Geezhega to 
Okhotsk, and had superintended generally the whole 
work of exploration. Macrae and Arnold had explored 
nearly all the region lying south of the Anadyr and along 
the lower Myan, and had gained much valuable informa- 
tion concerning the little-known tribe of Wandering 
Chookchees. Dodd, Robinson, and I had explored two 
routes from Geezhega to Anadyrsk, and had found a 
chain of wooded rivers connecting the Okhotsk Sea with the 
Pacific Ocean near Behring's Straits. The natives we had 
everywhere found to be peaceable and well disposed, and 
many of them along the route of the line were already 
engaged in cutting poles. The country, although by no 
means favorable to the construction of a telegraph, pre 
sented no obstacles which energy and perseverance 
I- could not overcome ; and, as we reviewed our wintei's 
work, we felt satisfied that the enterprise in which we 
were engaged, if not altogether an easy one, held out at 
least a fair prospect of success. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

SOCIAL LIFE AT GEEZHEGA — MAJOR ABASA'S EXPEDITION 

SUDDEN TRANSFORMATION FROM WINTER TO SUMMER 

— CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE, ETC. 

The months of April and May, owing to the great 
length of the days and the comparative mildness of 
the weather, are the most favorable months in North- 
eastern Siberia for out-door work and travel ; and as the 
Company's vessels could not be expected to arrive at 
Geezhega before the early part of June, Major Abasa de- 
termined to make the most of the intervening time. As 
soon as he had recovered a little, therefore, from the 
fatigue of his previous journey, he started with Bush, 
Macrae, and the Russian Governor, for Anadyrsk, intend- 
ing to engage there fifty or sixty native laborers and begin 
at once the construction of station-houses and the cutting 
and distribution of poles along the Anadyr River. My own 
efforts to that end, owing to the laziness of the Anadyrsk 
people, had been unsuccessful ; but it was hoped that 
through the influence and co-operation of the civil autho- 
rity something might perhaps be done. 

Major Abasa returned by the very last winter road in 
May. His expedition had been entirely successful ; Mr. 
Bush had been put in command of the Northern District 
from Penzhina to Behring's Straits, and he, together with 



344 TENT LI FE IN SIBERIA. 

Macrae, Harder, and Smith, had been left at Anadyrsk 
for the summer. As soon as the Anadyr River should 
open, this party was directed to descend it in canoes to 
its mouth, and there await the arrival of one of the Com- 
pany's vessels from San Francisco, with reinforcements 
and supplies. In the mean time fifty native laborers from 
Anadyrsk, Osolkin, and Pokorookof, had been hired and 
placed at their disposal, and it was hoped that by the 
time the ice should be out of the river they would have 
six or eight station-houses prepared, and several thou- 
sand poles cut, ready for distribution in rafts between the 
settlements of Anadyrsk and the Pacific Coast. Having 
thus accomplished all that it was possible to accomplish 
with the limited means and force at his disposal, Majoi 
Abasa returned to Geezhega, to await the arrival of the 
promised vessels from America, with men, material, and 
supplies, for the prosecution of the work. 

The season for dog-sledge travel was now over ; and as 
the country afforded no other means of interior transpor- 
tation, we could not expect to do any more work, or have 
any further communication with our outlying parties at 
Anadyrsk and Okhotsk until the arrival of our vessels. 
We therefore rented ourselves a little log-house over- 
looking the valley of the Geezhega River, furnished it as 
comfortably as possible with a few plain wooden chairs 
and tables, hung up our maps and charts over the rough 
log walls, displayed our small library of two books- 
Shakespeare and the New Testament-^as advantageously 
as possible in one corner, and prepared for at least a 
month of luxurious idleness. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



345 



It was now June. The snow was rapidly disappearing 
tinder the influence of the warm long-continued sunshine, 
the ice in the river showed unmistakable signs of break- 
ing up, patches of bare ground appeared here and there 
along the sunny hill-sides, and everything foretold the 
speedy approach of the short but hot Arctic summer 
Winter in most parts of Northeastern Siberia begins to 
break up in May, and summer advances with rapid strides 
upon its retreating footsteps, covering instantly with grass 
and flowers the ground which it reclaims from the melting 
snow-drifts of winter. Hardly is the snow off the ground 
before the delicate wax-like petals of the blueberry and 
star-flower, and the great snowy clusters of Labrador tea 
begin to whiten the mossy plains ; the birches, willows, 
and alders burst suddenly into leaf, the river banks grow 
green with a soft carpet of grass, and the warm still air is 
filled all day with the trumpet-like cries of wild swans and 
geese, as they come in great triangular flocks from the sea 
and pass high overhead toward the far North. In three 
weeks after the disappearance of the last snow all Nature 
has put on the garments of midsummer and rejoices in 
almost perpetual sunshine. There is no long, wet, linger- 
ing spring, no gradual unfolding of buds and leaves one 
by one as with us. The vegetation, which has been held 
in icy fetters for eight long months, bursts suddenly its 
bonds, and with one great irresistible sweep takes the 
vvoild by storm, j There is no longer any night ; one day 
blends almost imperceptibly into another, with only a 
short interval of twilight, which has all the coolness and 
repose of night without its darkness. You may sit by 
15* 



346 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

your open window and read until twelve o'clock, inhaling 
the fragrance of flowers which is brought to you on the 
cool night wind, listening to the murmur and flash of th' 
river in the valley below, and tracing the progress of the 
hidden sun by the flood of rosy light which streams up 
in the North from behind the purple mountains. It is 
broad daylight, and yet all Nature is asleep, and a strange 
mysterious stillness pervades heaven and earth like that 
which accompanies a solar eclipse. You can even hear 
the faint roar of the surf on the rocky coasts ten miles 
away. Now and then a little song-sparrow hidden in the 
alder thicket by the river-bank dreams that it is morning 
and breaks out into a quick unconscious trill of melody ; 
but as he wakes he stops himself suddenly and utters a 
few "peeps" of perplexity, as if not quite sure whether it 
be morning, or only last evening, and whether he ought to 
sing or go to sleep again. He finally seems to decide 
upon the latter course, and all becomes silent once more 
save the murmur of the river over its rocky bed and the 
faint roar of the distant sea. Soon after one o'clock a 
glittering segment of the sun appears between the cloud- 
like peaks of the distant mountains, a sudden flash of 
golden light illumines the green dewy landscape, the 
little sparrow in the alder thicket triumphantly takes up 
again his unfinished song, the ducks, geese, and aquatic 
birds renew their harsh discordant cries from the marshy 
flats along the river, and all animated nature wakes sud- 
denly to a consciousness of daylight as if it were a new 
thing. There has been no night — but it is another day 7 > 
The traveller who has never before experienced an 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 34) 

Arctic summer, and who has been accustomed to thi nk of 
Siberia as a land of eternal snow and ice, cannot help 
being astonished at the sudden and wonderful develop- 
ment of animal and vegetable life throughout that country 
in the month of June, and the rapidity of the transition 
from winter to summer in the course of a few short weeks. 
(In the early part of June it is frequently possible to travel 
in the vicinity of Geezhega upon dog-sledges, while by 
the last of the same month the trees are all in full leaf, 
primroses, cowslips, buttercups, valerian, cinque-foil, and 
Labrador tea, blossom everywhere upon the higher plains 
and river-banks, and the thermometer at noon frequently 
reaches 70 Fahr. in the shade. There is no spring, in the 
usual acceptation of the word, at all. The disappearance 
of snow and the appearance of vegetation are almost 
simultaneous; and although the "toondras" or moss- 
steppes continue for some time to hold water like a sa- 
turated spcnge, they are covered with flowers and blos- 
soming bluebtny bushes, and show no traces of the long, 
cold winter whiciN has so recently ended. In less than a 
month after the disappearance of snow in 1866, I col- 
lected from one high plain about five acres in extent, near 
the mouth of the Geezhega River, more than sixty species 
of flowers. Animal life of all kinds is equally prompt in 
making its appearance. Long before the ice is out of the 
gulfs and bays along the coast, migratory birds begin to 
come in from the sea in immense numbers. Innumerable 
species of ducks, geese, and swans — many of them un« 
known to the American ornithologist — swarm about every 
little pool of water in the valleys and upon the lower plains ; 



348 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

gulls, fish-hawks, and eagles, keep up a continual scream- 
ing about the mouths of the numerous rivers, and the 
rocky precipitous coast of the sea is literally alive with 
countless millions of red-beaked puffin or sea-parrots, 
which build their nests in the crevices and upon the ledges 
of the most inaccessible cliffs, and at the report of a pis- 
tol fly out in clouds which fairly darken the air. Besides 
these predatory and aquatic birds, there are many others 
which are not as gregarious in their habits, and which 
consequently, attract less notice. Among these are the 
common barn and chimney swallows, crows, ravens, mag- 
pies, thrushes, plover, ptarmigan, and a kind of grouse 
known to the Russians as " teteer." Only one singing- 
bird, as far as I know, is to be found in the country, and 
that is a species of small ground sparrow which frequents 
the drier and more grassy plains in the vicinity of the Rus- 
sian settlements. 

The village of Geezhega, where we had temporarily es- 
tablished our head-quarters, was a small settlement of per- 
haps fifty or sixty plain log-houses, situated upon the left 
bank of the Geezhega River, eight or ten miles from the 
gulf. It was at that time one of the most important and 
flourishing settlements upon the coast of the Okhotsk Sea, 
and controlled all the trade of Northeastern Siberia as 
far north as the Anadyr and as far west as the village of 
Okhotsk. It was the residence of a local governor, the 
head-quarters of four or five Russian merchants, and was 
visited annually by a government supply steamer, and sev- 
eral trading-vessels belonging to wealthy American houses. 
Its population consisted principally of Siberian Cossacks 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 34O 

and the descendants of compulsory emigrants from Rus 
sia proper, who had received their freedom as compensa- 
tion for forcible expatriation. Like all other jf ///*</ inhabit- 
ants of Siberia and Kamtchatka, they depended for theu 
subsistence principally upon fish ; but as the country 
abounded in game, and the climate and soil in the valley 
of the Geezhega River permitted the cultivation of the 
hardiest kinds of garden vegetables, their condition was 
undoubtedly much better than it would have been in Rus- 
sia proper. They were perfectly free, could dispose of 
their time and services as they chose, and by hiring them- 
selves and their dog-sledges to Russian traders in the 
winter, they earned money enough to keep themselves 
supplied with the simpler luxuries, such as tea, sugar, 
and tobacco, throughout the year. Like all the inhabit- 
ants of Siberia, and indeed like all Russians, they were 
extremely hospitable, good-natured, and obliging, and con- 
tributed not a little to our comfort and amusement during 
the long months which we were obliged to spend in their 
far away isolated settlement. 

The presence of Americans in a village so little fre- 
quented by strangers as Geezhega had a very enlivening 
influence upon scciety, and as soon as the inhabitants 
ascertained by experiment that these distinguished so- 
journers did not consider it beneath their dignity to as- 
sociate with the " prostoi narod," or common people, they 
overwhelmed us with invitations to tea-parties and even- 
iLg dances. Anxious to see more of the life of the peo- 
ple, and glad to do anything which would diversify oui 
monotonous existence, we made it \ point to accept every 



350 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

such invitation which we received, and many were thr 
dances which Arnold and I attended during the absence 
of the Major and the Russian Governor at Anadyrsk. 
We had no occasion to ask our Cossack Yagor when 
there was to be another dance. The question was rather, 
" Where is the dance to be to-night ? " because we knew to 
a certainty that there would be one somewhere, and wish- 
ed only to know whether the house in which it was to be 
held had a ceiling high enough to insure the safety of our 
heads. It would seem like a preposterous idea to invite 
people to dance the Russian jig in a room which was too 
low to permit a man of average stature to stand upright ; 
but it did not seem at all so to these enthusiastic pleas- 
ure-seekers in Geezhega, and night after night they would 
go hopping around a seven-by-nine room to the music of 
a crazy fiddle and a two-stringed guitar, stepping on each 
other's toes and bumping their heads against the ceiling 
with the most cheerful equanimity imaginable. At these 
dancing parties the Americans always received a hearty 
welcome, and were fed with berries, black bread, and tea, 
until they could eat and dance no more. Occasionally, 
however, Siberian hospitality took a form which, to say 
the least, was not altogether pleasant For instance, 
Dodd and I were invited one evening to some kind of an 
entertainment at the house of one of the Cossacks, and, 
as was customary in such cases, our host set before us a 
plain lunch of black bread, salt, raw frozen fish, and a 
small pepper-sauce bottle about half full of some liquid 
#hich he declared to be "vodka." Knowing that there 
was no liquor in the settlement except what we had, Dodd 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 35 » 

inquired where he had obtained it. He replied with evi 
dent embarrassment that it was some which he had 
bought from a trading-vessel the previous fall, and which 
he had reserved for cases of emergency ! I didn't believe 
that there was a Cossack in all Northeastern Siberia who 
was capable of reserving a bottle of liquor for any such 
iength of time, and in view of his evident uneasiness we 
thought best to decline to partake of the liquid refresh- 
ments and to ask no further questions. It might be 
" vodka," but it was not free from suspicion. Upon our 
return home I called our boy and inquired if he knew 
anything about the Cossack's liquor — how he obtained it, 
and where it came from at that season of the year, when 
none of the Russian merchants had any for sale. The 
boy hesitated a moment, but upon being questioned close- 
ly he explained the mystery. It appears that the liquor 
was ours. Whenever any of the inhabitants of the village 
came to call upon us, as they frequently did, especially 
upon holidays, it was customary to give each one of them 
a drink. ( Taking advantage of this custom, our friend the 
Cossack used to provide himself with a small bottle, hang 
it about his neck with a string, conceal it under his fur 
coat, and present himself at our house every now and 
then for the ostensible purpose of congratulating us upon 
some Russian holiday. Of course we were expected to 
reward this disinterested sociability with a drink. The 
Cossack would swallow all he could of the fiery stuff, and 
then holding as much as possible in his mouth he would 
make a terrible grimace, cover his face with one hand as 
if the liquor were very strong, and start hurriedly for thf 



352 'TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

kitchen to get some water. As soon as he was secure 
from observation he would take out his bottle, deposit in 
it the last mouthful of liquor which he had not swallow 
ed, and return in a few moments to thank us for our hos- 
pitality — and our " vodka." This manoeuvre he had 
been practising at our expense for an unknown length of 
time, and had finally accumulated nearly a pint. He then 
had the unblushing audacity to set this half-swallowed 
"vodka" before us in an old pepper-sauce bottle, and 
pretend that it was some which he had reserved since the 
previous fall for cases of emergency ! Could human im- 
pudence go farther ? 

I will relate one other incident which took place during 
the first month of our residence at Geezhega, and which 
illustrates another phase of the popular character, viz. : 
extreme superstition. As I was sitting alone in the house 
one monling, drinking tea, I was interrupted by the sud- 
den entrance of a Russian Cossack named Kolmagorof. 
He seemed to be unusually sober and anxious about 
something, and as soon as he had bowed and bade me 
good morning, he turned to our Cossack, Vushine, and 
began in a low voice to relate to him something which 
had just occurred, and which seemed to be of great in- 
terest to them both. Owing to my imperfect knowledge 
of the language, and the low tone in which the conversa- 
tion was carried on, I failed to catch its purport ; but it 
closed with an earnest request from Kolmagorof that Vu- 
shine should give him some article of clothing, which I 
understood to be a scarf or tippet. Vushine immediately 
went to a little closet in one corner of the room, where 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 353 

he was in the habit of storing his personal effects, dragged 
out a large seal-skin bag, and began searching in it for the 
desired article. After prilling out three or four pair of fur 
boots, a lump of tallow, some dog-skin stockings, a 
hatchet, and a bundle of squirrel-skins, he finally produced 
and held up in triumph one-half of an old, dirty, moth- 
eaten woollen tippet, and handing it to Kolmagorof, he re- 
sumed his search for the missing piece. This also he 
presently found, in a worse state of preservation, if pos- 
sible, than the other. They looked as if they had been 
discovered in the bag of some poor rag-picker who had 
fished them up out of a gutter in the Five Points. Kol- 
magorof tied the two pieces together, wrapped them up 
carefully in an old newspaper, thanked Vushine for his 
trouble, and, with an air of great relief, bowed again to 
me and went out. Wondering what use he could make 
of such a worn, dirty, dilapidated article of clothing as 
that which he had received, I applied to Vushine for a 
solution of the mystery. 

"What did he want that tippet for?" I inquired; "it 
isn't good for anything." 

" I know," replied Vushine, " it is a miserable old thing ; 
but there is no other in the village, and his daughter has 
got the ' Anadyrski bol' (Anadyrsk sickness)." 

" Anadyrski bol ! " I repeated in astonishment, never 
having heard of the disease in question; "what has the 
' Anadyrski bol ' got to do with an old tippet ? " 

" Why, you see, his daughter has asked for a tippet, and 
as she has the Anadyrsk sickness, they must get one for 
her- It don't make any difference about its being old." 



354 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

This struck me as being a very singular explanation of 
a very curious performance, and I proceeded to question 
Vushine more closely as to the nature of this strange dis- 
ease, and the manner in which an old moth-eaten tippet 
could afford relief. The information which I gathered 
was briefly as follows : The " Anadyrski bol," so called 
from its having originated at Anadyrsk, was a peculiai 
form of disease, resembling very much the modern spi- 
ritual " trance," which had long prevailed in Northeast- 
ern Siberia, and which defied all ordinary remedies and 
all usual methods of treatment. The persons attacked 
by it, who were generally women, became unconscious of 
all surrounding things, acquired suddenly a faculty of 
speaking languages which they had never heard, particu- 
larly the Gakout language, and were gifted temporarily 
with a sort of second-sight or clairvoyance which enabled 
them to describe accurately objects which they could not 
see and never had seen. While in this state they would 
frequently ask for some particular thing, whose appearance 
and exact location they would describe, and unless it was 
brought to them they would apparently go into convulsions, 
sing in the Gakout language, utter strange cries, and behave 
generally as if they were insane. Nothing could quiet 
them until the article for which they had asked should be 
produced. Thus Kolmagorof 's daughter had imperatively 
demanded a woollen tippet, and as the poor Cossack had 
nothing of the sort in the house, he had started out 
through the village to find one. This was all the infor- 
mation which Vushine could give me. He had never 
seen one of these possessed persons himself, and had only 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 355 

heard of the disease from others ; but he said that Pader^ 
the Chief of the Geezhega Cossacks, could undoubtedly 
tell me all about it, as his daughter had been similaily 
afflicted. Surprised to find among the ignorant peasantry 
of Northeastern Siberia a disease whose symptoms re- 
sembled so closely the phenomena of modern spiritualism, 
I determined to investigate the subject as far as possible, 
and as soon as the Major came in, I persuaded him to 
send for Paderin. The Chief of the Cossacks — a simple, 
honest old fellow, whom it was impossible to suspect of 
intentional deception — confirmed all that Vushine had 
told me, and gave us many additional particulars. He 
said that he had frequently heard his daughter talk the 
Gakout language while in one of these trances, and had 
even known her to relate events which were occurring at 
a distance of several hundred miles. The Major inquired 
how he knew that it was the Gakout language which his 
daughter spoke. He said he did not know certainly that 
it was ; but it was not Russian, nor Korak, nor any 
other native language with which he was familiar, and it 
sounded very much like Gakout. I inquired what was 
done in case the sick person demanded some article which 
it was impossible to obtain. ^Paderin replied that he had 
never heard of such an instance ; if the article asked for 
was an uncommon one, the girl always stated where it 
was to be found — frequently describing with the greatest 
minuteness things which, so far as he knew, she had 
never seen. On one occasion, he said his daughtei 
asked for a particular spotted dog which he was accus« 
tomed to drive in his team. The dog was brought into the 



356 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

room, and the girl at once became quiet ; but from that 
time the dog itself became so wild and restless as to be 
almost unmanageable, and he was finally obliged to kill 
him. "And do you believe in all this stuff?" broke in 
the Major impatiently, as Paderin hesitated for a moment. 

" I believe in God and in our Saviour Jesus Christ/ 
replied the Cossack, as he crossed himself devoutly. 

" That's all right, and so you ought," rejoined the 
Major; "but that has nothing whatever to do with the 
' Anadyrskbol.' Do you really believe that these women 
talk in the Gakout language, which they have never 
heard, and describe things which they have never seen ? " 

Paderin shrugged his shoulders expressively and said 
that he believed what he saw. He then proceeded to relate 
to us further and still more incredible particulars as to 
the symptoms of the disease, and the mysterious powers 
which it developed in the persons attacked, illustrating his 
statements by reference to the case of his own daughter. 
He was evidently a firm believer in the reality of the 
sickness, but would not say to what agency he ascribed 
the phenomena of second-sight and the ability to 
speak strange languages, which were its most remarkable 
symptoms. 

During the day we happened to call upon the Ispravnik 
or Russian Governor, and in course of conversation men- 
tioned the "Anadyrsk bol," and related some of the 
stories which we had heard from Paderin. The Ispravrnik 
—skeptical upon all .subjects, and especially upon this — 
said that he had often heard of the disease, and that his 
wife was a firm believer in it, but that in his opinion it 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 357 

was a humbug, which deserved no other treatment than 
severe corporal punishment. The Russian peasantry, he 
said, were very superstitious and would believe almost any- 
thing, and the " Anadyrsk bol" was partly a delusion and 
partly an imposition practised by the women upon their 
male relatives to further some selfish purpose. A woman 
who wanted a new bonnet, and who could not obtain it 
by the ordinary method of teasing, found it very conve- 
nient asa" dernier ressort " to fall into a trance state and 
demand a bonnet as a physiological necessity. If the 
husband still remained obdurate, a few well-executed con- 
vulsions and a song or two in the so-called Gakout lan- 
guage were generally sufficient to bring him to terms. He 
then related an instance of a Russian merchant whose 
wife was attacked by the "Anadyrsk bol," and who actually 
made a winter journey from Geezhega to Gamsk — a 
distance of 300 versts — to procure a silk dress for which 
she had asked and which could not be elsewhere obtained ! 
Of course the women do not always ask for articles 
which they might be supposed to want in a state of health. 
If they did, it would soon arouse the suspicions of their 
deluded husbands, fathers, and brothers, and lead to 
inconvenient inquiries, if not to still more unpleasant 
experiment, upon the character of the mysterious disease. 
To avoid this, and to blind the men to the real nature of 
the deception, the women frequently ask for dogs, sledges, 
axes, and other similar articles of which they can make 
no possible use, and thus persuade their credulous male 
relatives that their demands are governed only by diseased 
caprice and have in view no definite object. Such was 



35& TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

the rationalistic explanation which the Ispravnik gave of 
the curious delusion known as the " Anadyrsk bol ;" and 
although it argued more subtlety on the part of the women 
and more credulity on the part of the men than I had 
supposed either sex to be capable of, I could not but 
admit that the explanation was a plausible one, and 
accounted satisfactorily for most of the phenomena. 

( In view of this remarkable piece of feminine strategy, 
our strong-minded women in America must admit that 
their Siberian sisters show greater ingenuity in obtaining 
their rights and throwing dust in the eyes of their lords 
and masters than has yet been exhibited by all the 
Women's Rights Associations in Christendom. To invent 
an imaginary disease with such peculiar symptoms, cause 
it to prevail as an epidemic throughout a whole country, 
and use it as a lever to open the masculine pocket-books 
and supply feminine wants, is the greatest triumph which 
woman's craft has ever achieved over man's stupidity! 

The effect of the Ispravnik' s revelation upon Doddwas 
very singular. He declared that he felt the premonitory 
symptoms of the "Anadyrsk bol" coming on, and was 
sure that he was destined to be a victim to the insidious 
disease. He therefore requested the Major not to be 
surprised if he should come home some day and find him 
in strong convulsions, singing "Yankee Doodle" in the 
Gakout language, and demanding his back pay ! The 
Major assured him that, in a case of such desperate emer- 
gency, he should be compelled to apply the Ispravnik's 
remedy, viz., twenty lashes on the bare back, and advised 
him to postpone his convulsions until the exchequer of 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 359 

the Siberian Division should be in a condition to meet his 
demands. 

Our life at Geezhega during the early part of June was 
a very decided improvement upon the experience of the 
previous six months. The weather was generally warm 
and pleasant, the hills and valleys were green with luxuri- 
ant vegetation, daylight had become perpetual, and we 
had nothing to do but ramble about the country in pur- 
suit of game, row down to the mouth of the river occa- 
sionally to look for vessels, and plan all sorts of amuse- 
ments to pass away the time. 

, The nights were the most glorious parts of the days, but 
the perpetual light seemed even more strange to us at 
first than the almost perpetual darkness of winter. We 
could never decide to our own satisfaction when one day 
ended and another began, or when it was time to go to 
bed. It seemed ridiculous to make any preparations for 
retiring before the sun had set ; and yet, if we did not, it 
was sure to rise again before we could possibly get to 
sleep, and then it seemed just as preposterous to lie in bed 
as it did in the first place. We finally compromised the 
matter by putting tight wooden shutters over all our win- 
dows, and then, by lighting candles inside, succeeded in 
persuading our unbelieving senses that it was night, 
although the sun outside was shining with noon-day bril- 
liancy. When we awoke, however, another difficulty pre- 
sented itself Did we go to bed to-day ? or was it yester- 
day ? And what time is it now ? To-day, yesterday, and 
to-morrow were all mixed up, and we found it almost im 
possible to distinguish one from the other. I caught my 



360 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

self repeatedly making two entries in my journal in the 
course of twenty-four hours, with the mistaken impression 
that two days had passed. 

As soon as the ice was fairly out of Geezheginsk Gulf, 
so that vessels might be expected to enter, Major Abasa 
caused a number of Cossacks to be stationed at the 
mouth of the river, with orders to watch night and day for 
sails and warn us at once if any appeared. 

On the 1 8th of June the trading brig "Hallie Jack- 
son," belonging to W. H. Bordman, of Boston, entered 
the gulf, and as soon as the tide permitted, ran into the 
mouth of the river to discharge her cargo. This vessel 
brought us the first news from the great outside world 
which we had received in more than eleven months, and 
her arrival was hailed with the greatest enthusiasm by 
both Russians and Americans. Half the population of 
the village came hurrying down to the mouth of the river 
as soon as it became known that a ship had arrived, and 
the landing-place for several days was a scene of un- 
wonted activity and excitement. The " Jackson " could 
give us no information with regard to the vessels of our 
Company, except that when she sailed from San Francisco 
in March they were being rapidly loaded and fitted for 
sea. She brought, however, all the stores which we had 
left at Petropavlovski the previous fall, as well as a large 
cargo of tea, sugar, tobacco, and sundries for the Sibe- 
rian trade. 

We had found by our winter's experience that money 
could not be used to advantage in payment for native 
labor, except in the settlements of Okhotsk, Geezhega, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 36 1 

and Anadyrsk ; and that tea, sugar, and tobacco were in 
every way preferable, on account of the universal con- 
sumption of those articles throughout the country and the 
high price which they commanded during the winter 
months. A laborer or teamster who would demand 
twenty roubles in money for a month's work, was entirely 
satisfied if we gave him eight pounds of tea and ten 
pounds of sugar in its stead ; and as the latter cost us only 
ten roubles, we made a saving of one-half in all our ex- 
penditures. In view of this fact Major Abasa determined 
to use as little money as possible, and pay for labor in 
merchandise at current rates. He accordingly purchased 
from the " Jackson " 10,000 lbs. of tea and 15 or 20,000 
lbs. of white loaf-sugar, which he stored away in the 
Government magazines, to be used during the coming 
winter instead of money. 

The "Jackson" discharged all the cargo which she in- 
tended to leave at Geezhega, and as soon as the tide was 
sufficiently high to enable her to cross the bar at the 
mouth of the river, she sailed for Petropavlovski and left 
us again alone. 
16 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

WEARY WAITING — MOSQUITOES — ARRIVAL OF A RUSSIAN 
FRIGATE. 

After the departure of the " Jackson " we began to look 
forward with eager anticipation to the arrival of our own 
vessels and the termination of our long imprisonment at 
Geezhega. Eight months of nomadic camp-life had 
given us a taste for adventure and excitement which noth- 
ing but constant travel could gratify, and as soon as the 
first novelty of idleness wore off we began to tire of our 
compulsory inactivity, and became impatient for work. 
We had exhausted all the amusements of Geezhega, read all 
the newspapers which had been brought by the " Jackson," 
discussed their contents to the minutest details, explored 
every foot of ground in the vicinity of the settlement, and 
tried everything which our ingenuity could devise to pass 
away the time, but all to no avail. The days seemed in- 
terminable, the long-expected ships did not come, and 
the mosquitoes and gnats made our life a burden. 

About the tenth of July the mosquito— that curse of the 
northern summer — rises out of the damp moss of the 
lower plains, and winds his shrill horn to apprise all ani- 
mated nature of his triumphant resurrection and his wil- 
lingness to furnish musical entertainment to man and 
beast upon extremely reasonable terms. In three or four 



Mr 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 363 

days, if the weather be still and warm, the whole atmos- 
phere will be literally filled with clouds of mosquitoes, and 
from that time until the 10th of August they persecute every 
living thing with a bloodthirsty eagerness which knows no 
rest and feels no pity. Escape is impossible and defence 
useless ; they follow their unhappy victims everywhere, 
and their untiring perseverance overcomes every obstacle 
which human ingenuity can throw in their way. Smoke 
of any ordinary density they treat with contemptuous 
indifference ; mosquito-bars they either evade or carry by 
assault, and only by burying himself alive can man hope 
to finally escape their relentless persecution. In vain we 
wore gauze veils over our heads and concealed ourselves un- 
der calico " pologs." The multitude of our tiny assailants 
was so great that some of them sooner or later were sure 
to find an unguarded opening, and just when we thought 
ourselves most secure we were suddenly surprised and 
iven out of our shelter by a fresh and unexpected attack. 
Mosquitoes, I know, do not enter into the popular con- 
ception of Siberia ; but never in any tropical country have 
I seen them prevail in such immense numbers as in North- 
eastern Siberia during the month of July. They make the 
great moss " toondras " in some places utterly uninhabitable, 
and force even the fur-clad reindeer to seek the shelter and 
the cooler atmosphere of the mountains. In the Russian 
settlements they torment dogs and cattle until the latter 
run furiously about in a perfect frenzy of pain, and fight 
desperately for a place to stand in the smoke of a fire. 
As far north as the settlement of Kolyma, on the coast; of 
the Arctic Ocean, the natives are compelled, in still. 



364 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

warm weather, to surround their, houses with a circle of 
"smudges," to protect themselves and their domestic 
animals from the ceaseless persecution of mosquitoes. 

Early in July all the inhabitants of Geezhega, with the 
exception of the Governor and a few Russian merchants, 
closed their winter-houses, and removed to their "le- 
tovas " or summer fishing-stations along the banks of the 
river, to await the arrival of the salmon. Finding the 
deserted village rather dull, Dodd, Robinson, Arnold, 
and I removed to the mouth of the river, and took up 
our quarters once more in the empty government store- 
house which we had occupied during the stay of the 
" Hallie Jackson." 

I will not dwell long upon the monotonous discom- 
fort of the life which we led for the next month. It 
may all be comprised in four words — inactivity, disap- 
pointment, mosquitoes, and misery. Looking for vessels 
was our only duty, fighting mosquitoes our only diversion ; 
and as the former never appeared and the latter nevei 
disappeared, both occupations were equally unprofitable 
and unsatisfactory. Twenty times a day we put on our 
gauze veils, tied our clothing down at the wrists and an- 
kles, and climbed laboriously to the summit of a high bluff 
to look for vessels ; but twenty times a day we returned 
disappointed to our bare, cheerless rooms, and vented our 
indignation indiscriminately upon the country, the Com- 
pany, the ships, and the mosquitoes. We could not help 
feeling as if we had dropped out of the great current of 
human affairs, as if our places in the distant busy world 
had been filled and our very existence forgotten. 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 365 

The chief engineer of our enterprise had promised faith- 
fully that ships with men, material, and supplies for the 
immediate prosecution of the work, should be at Geezhe- 
ga and at the mouth of the Anadyr River as early in the 
season as ice would permit them to enter ; but it was now 
August, and they had not yet made their appearance 
Whether they had been lost, or whether the whole enter 
prise had been abandoned, we could only conjecture ; but 
as week after week passed away without bringing any 
news, we gradually lost all hope and began to discuss the 
advisability of sending some one to the Siberian capital to 
inform the Company by telegraph of our situation. 

It is but justice to Major Abasa to say that during all 
these long weary months of waiting he never entirely gave 
up to discouragement, nor allowed himself to doubt the 
perseverance of the Company in the work which it had 
undertaken. The ships might have been belated or have 
met with some misfortune, but he did not think it possible 
that the work had been abandoned, and he continued 
throughout the summer to make such preparations as he 
could for another winter's campaign. 

Early in August, Dodd and I, tired of looking for ves- 
sels which never came, and which we firmly believed 
never would come, returned on foot to the settlement, 
leaving Arnold and R.obinson to maintain the watch at the 
mouth of the river. 

Late in the afternoon of the 14th, while I was busily 
engaged in drawing maps to illustrate the explorations of 
the previous winter, our Cossack servant came rushing 
furiously into the house, breathless with haste and excite 



366 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ment, crying out : " Pooshka ! soodna ! " — a cannon 1 a 
ship ! Knowing that three cannon shots were the sig- 
nals which Arnold ana Robinson had been directed to 
make in case a vessel was seen entering the gulf, we ran 
hurriedly out of doors and listened eagerly for a second 
report. We had not long to wait. Another faint, dull 
explosion was heard in the direction of the light-house, fol- 
lowed at an interval of a moment by a third, leaving no 
room for a doubt that the long-expected ships had arrived. 
Amid great excitement a canoe was hastily prepared and 
launched, and taking our seats upon bear-skins in the bot- 
tom, we ordered our Cossack rowers to push off. At 
every "letova" or fishing-station which we passed in our 
rapid descent of the river, we were hailed with shouts of: 
" Soodna ! " " soodna ! " — a ship ! a ship ! and at the last 
one — Volynkina — where we stopped for a moment to rest 
our men, we were told that the vessel was now in plain 
sight from the hills, and that she had anchored near an 
island known as the Matooga, about twelve miles distant 
from the mouth of the river. Assured that it was no false 
alarm, we pushed on with redoubled speed, and in fifteen 
minutes more landed at the head of the gulf. Arnold 
and Robinson, with the Russian pilot, Kerrillof, had al- 
ready gone off to the vessel in the government whale- 
boat, so that there remained nothing for us to do but 
climb to the summit of light-house bluff and watch impa- 
tiently for their return. 

It was late in the afternoon when the signal of a vessel 
in sight had been given, and by the time we reached the 
mouth of the river it was nearly sunset. The ship, which 



TENT LIF£ IN SIBERIA. 367 

was a good-sized barque, lay quietly at anchor near the 
middle of the gulf, about twelve miles distant, with a 
small American flag flying at her peak. We could see 
the government whale-boat towing astern, and knew that 
Arnold and Robinson must be on board ; but the ship's 
boats still hung at the davits, and no preparations were 
apparently being made to come ashore. The Russian 
Governor had made us promise when we left the settle- 
ment, that if the reported vessel turned out a reality and 
not a delusion, we would fire three more guns. Fre- 
quent disappointment had taught him the fallibility of 
human testimony touching the arrival of ships at that 
particular port, and he did not propose to make a jour- 
ney to the light-house in a leaky canoe, unless further 
intelligence should fully justify it. As there could no 
longer be any doubt about the fact, we loaded up the old 
rusty cannon once more, stuffed it full of wet grass to 
strengthen its voice, and gave the desired signals, which 
echoed in successive crashes from every rocky promon- 
tory along the coast, and died away to a faint mutter far 
out at sea. 

In the course of an hour the Governor made his ap- 
pearance, and as it was beginning to grow dark, we all 
climbed once more to the summit of the bluff to take a 
last look at the ship before she should be hidden from 
sight. There was no appearance of activity on board, 
and the lateness of the hour made it improbable that 
Arnold and Robinson would return before morning. Wc 
went back therefore to the empty government house, 01 
"kazarme," and spent half the night in fruitless conjee 



368 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tures as to the cause of the vessel's late arrival and the 
nature of the news which she would bring. 

With the earliest morning twilight Dodd and I clam- 
bered again to the crest of the bluff, to assure ourselves 
by actual observation that the ship had not vanished like 
the Flying Dutchman under cover of darkness, and left 
us to mourn another disappointment. There was little 
ground for fear. Not only was the barque still in the 
position which she had previously occupied, but there 
had been another arrival during the night. A large three- 
masted steamer, of apparently 2,000 tons, was lying in the 
offing, and three small boats could be seen a few miles 
distant pulling eagerly toward the mouth of the river. 
Great was the excitement which this discovery produced. 
Dodd rushed furiously down the hill to the kazarme, 
shouting to the Major that there was a steamer in the 
gulf, and that boats were within five miles of the light- 
house. In a few moments we were all gathered in a 
group on the highest point of the bluff, speculating Mpon 
the character of the mysterious steamer which had thus 
taken us by surprise, and watching the approach of the 
boats. The largest of these was now within three miles, 
and our glasses enabled us to distinguish in the long, 
regular sweep of its oars, the practised stroke of a man- 
of-war's crew, and in its stern sheets the peculiar 
shoulder-straps of Russian officers. The steamer was 
evidently a large ship-of-war, but what had brought her 
to that remote, unfrequented part of the world we could 
not conjecture. 

In half an hour more two of the boats were abreast of 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 369 

light-house bluff, and we descended to the landing-place 
to meet them in a state of excitement not easily imagined. 
Fourteen months had elapsed since we had heard from 
home, and the prospect of receiving letters and of getting 
once more to work was a sufficient excuse for unusual ex- 
citement. The smallest boat was the first to reach the 
shore, and as it grated on the sandy beach an officer in 
blue naval uniform sprang out and introduced himself as 
Captain Sutton, of the Russo-American Telegraph Com- 
pany's barque " Clara Bell," two months from San Fran- 
cisco, with men and material for the construction of the 
line. "Where have you been all summer?" demanded 
the Major as he shook hands with the Captain ; "we have 
been looking for you ever since June, and had about come 
to the conclusion that the work was abandoned." Cap- 
tain Sutton replied that all of the Company's vessels had 
been late in leaving San Francisco, and that he had also 
been detained some time in Petropavlovski by circum- 
stances explained in his letters. '- What steamer is that 
lying at anchor beyond the " Clara Bell," inquired the 
Major. "That is the Russian corvette 'Varag,' from 
Japan." — " But what is she doing up here ? " — " Why," 
said the Captain with a quizzical smile, "you ought to 
know, sir; I understand that she reports to you for 
orders ; I believe she has been detailed by the Russian 
Government to assist in the construction of the line ; at 
least that was what I was told when we met her at Petro- 
pavlovski. She has a Russian Commissioner on board, 
and a correspondent of the New York Herald" This 

was unexpected news. We had heard that the Russian 
16* 



370 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

and American Naval Departments had been instructed to 
send ships to Behring's Sea to assist the Company in mak- 
ing soundings and laying down the cable between the 
American and Siberian coasts, but we had never expected 
to see either of these vessels at Geezhega. The simul- 
taneous arrival of a loaded barque, a steam corvette, a 
Russian Commissioner, and a correspondent of the New 
York Herald, certainly looked like business, and we con- 
gratulated ourselves and each other upon the improving 
prospects of the Siberian Division. 

The corvette's boat by this time had reached the shore, 
and after making the acquaintance of Mr. Anossof, Col. 
Knox, the Herald correspondent, and half a dozen Russian 
officers who spoke English with the greatest fluency, we 
proceeded to open and read our long-delayed mail. 

The news, as far as it related to the affairs of the Com- 
pany and the prospects of the enterprise, w r as very satis- 
factory. Col. Bulkley, the Engineer-in-Chief, had touched 
at Petropavlovski on his way north, and had written us 
from there by the " Varag " and the " Clara Bell " full 
particulars as to his movements and dispositions. Three 
vessels— the " Clara Bell," " Palmetto," and " Onward "— 
had been sent from San Francicso to Geezhega with a force 
of about sixty men, and large assorted cargoes to the value 
of sixty thousand dollars. One of these, the " Clara Bell," 
loaded with brackets and insulators, had already arrived ; 
and the other two, with commissary stores, wire, instruments 
and men, were en route. A fourth vessel with thirty offi- 
cers and workmen, a small river steamer, and a full supply 
of tools and provisions, had also been sent to the moutfr 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 371 

of the Anadyr River, where it would be received by Lieut. 
Bush. The corvette " Varag " had been detailed by the 
Russian Naval Department to assist in laying the cable 
across Behring's Straits ; but as the cable, which was or- 
dered in England, had not arrived, there was nothing in 
particular for the " Varag " to do, and Col. Bulkley had 
sent her with the Russian' Commissioner to Geezhega. 
Owing to her great draught of water — twenty-two feet — 
she could not safely come within less than fifteen or 
twenty miles of the Okhotsk Sea coast, and could not of 
course give us much assistance ; but her very presence, 
with a special Russian Commissioner on board, invested 
our enterprise with a sort of governmental authority and 
sanction, which enabled us to deal more successfully with 
the local authorities and people than would otherwise 
have been possible. 

It had been Major Abasa's intention, as soon as one of 
the Company's vessels should arrive, to go to the Russian 
city and province of Yakoutsk, on the Lena River, engage 
there five or six hundred native laborers, purchase three 
hundred horses, and make arrangements for their distri- 
bution along the whole route of the line. The peculiar 
state of affairs, however, at the time the " Varag" and the 
" Clara Bell " reached Geezhega, made it almost impos- 
sible for him to leave. Two vessels — the " Onward" and 
the " Palmetto " — were yet to arrive with large and val- 
uable cargoes, whose distribution along the coast of the 
Okhotsk Sea he wished to superintend in person. He de- 
cided therefore to postpone his trip to Yakoutsk until 
later in the fall, and to do what he could in the mean time 



372 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

with the two vessels already at his disposal. The " Clara 
Bell," in addition to her cargo of brackets and insulators, 
brought a foreman and three or four men as passengers, 
and these Major Abasa determined to send under com- 
mand of Lieut. Arnold to Yamsk, with orders to hire as 
many native laborers as possible and begin at once the 
work of cutting poles and preparing station-houses. The 
" Varag" he proposed to send with stores and despatches 
to Mahood, who had been living alone at Okhotsk almost 
five months without news, money, or provisions, and who 
it was presumed must be nearly discouraged. 

On the day previous to the " Varag' s " departure, we 
were all invited by her social and warm-hearted officers 
to a last complimentary dinner ; and although we had not 
been and should not be able with our scanty means to 
reciprocate such attentions, we felt no hesitation in ac- 
cepting the invitation and tasting once more the pleasures 
of civilized life. Nearly all the officers of the " Varag," 
some thirty in number, spoke English with the greatest 
fluency ; the ship itself was luxuriously fitted up ; a fine mil- 
itary band welcomed us with " Hail Columbia" when we 
came on board, and played selections from Martha, Tra- 
viata, and Der Freischiitz while we dined, and all things 
contributed to make our visit to the " Varag " a bright 
spot in our Siberian experience. 

On the following morning at ten o'clock we returned 
to the " Clara Bell " in one of the latter's small-boats, and 
the corvette steamed slowly out to sea, her officers vvav 
ing theii hats from the quarter-deck in mute farewell, 
and her band playing the Pirate's Choru? — " Ever be 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 373 

happy and blest as thou art " — as if in mockery of our 
lonely, cheerless exile ! It was a gloomy party of men 
which returned that afternoon to a supper of reindeer- 
meat and cabbage in the bare deserted rooms of the gov- 
ernment store -house at Geezhega ! We realized then, if 
never before, the difference between life in " God's 
country " and existence in Northeastern Asia. 

As soon as possible after the departure of the ■ " Varag," 
the "Clara Bell" was brought into tne mouth of the river, 
her cargo of brackets and insulators discharged, Lieut. 
Arnold and party sent on board, and with the next high 
tide, August 26th, she sailed for Yamsk and San Fran- 
cisco^ leaving no one at Geezhega but the original Kan* 
tchatkan party, Dodd, the Major, and myself. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

ARRIVAL OF SUPPLY-SHIPS — LAST JOURNEY TO THE ARO 
TIC CIRCLE — KORAK DRIVERS — FAMINE AT ANADYRSK. 

The brief excitement produced by the arrival of the 
Varag and the Clara Bell was succeeded by another 
long, dreary month of waiting, during which we lived as 
before in lonely discomfort at the mouth of the Geezhega 
River. Week after week passed away without bringing 
any tidings from the missing ships, and at last the brief 
northern summer closed, snow appeared upon the moun- 
tains, and heavy long-continued storms announced the 
speedy approach of another winter. More than three 
months had now elapsed since the supposed departure of 
the Onward and Palmetto from San Francisco, and we 
could only account for their non-appearance by the sup- 
position that they had either been disabled or lost at sea. 
On the 1 8th of September Major Abasa determined to send 
a messenger to the Siberian capital, to telegraph the Com- 
pany for instructions. Left as we were at the beginning 
of a second winter without men, tools, or materials of any 
kind, except 50,000 insulators and brackets, we could do 
nothing toward the construction of the line, and our only 
resource was to make our unpleasant situation known to 
the Company. On the 19th, however, before this reso- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 375 

lution could be carried into effect, the long-expected 
barque Palmetto arrived, followed closely by the Rus- 
sian supply-steamer Saghalin, from Nikolaevsk. The 
latter, being independent of wind and drawing \ery little 
water, had no difficulty in crossing the bar and gaining the 
shelter of the river ; but the Palmetto was compelled 
to anchor outside and await a higher tide. The weather, 
which for several days had been cold and threatening, 
grew momentarily worse, and on the 2 2d the wind was 
blowing a close-reefed topsail gale from the southeast, and 
rolling a tremendous sea into the unprotected gulf. We 
felt the most serious apprehensions for the safety of the 
unfortunate barque ; but as the water would not permit 
her to cross the bar at the mouth of the river, nothing 
could be done until another high tide. On the 23d it 
became evident that the Palmetto — upon which now 
rested all our hopes — must inevitably go ashore. . She had 
broken her heaviest anchor, and was drifting slowly but 
surely against the rocky, precipitous coast on the east side 
of the river, where nothing could prevent her from being 
dashed to pieces. As there was now no other alternative, 
Capt. Arthur slipped his cable, got his ship under way, 
and stood directly in for the mouth of the river. He could 
no longer avoid going ashore somewhere, and it was bet- 
ter to strike on a yielding bar of sand than to drift help- 
lessly against a black perpendicular wall of rock, where 
destruction would be certain. The barque came gallantly 
in until she was only half a mile distant from the light- 
house, and then grounded heavily in about seven feet of 
water. As soon as she struck she began pounding with 



376 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tremendous violence against the bottom, while the seas 
broke in great white clouds of spray entirely over hei 
quarter-deck. It did not seem probable that she would 
live through the night. As the tide rose, however, she 
drove farther and farther in toward the mouth of the river, 
until, at full flood, she was only a quarter of a mile distant. 
Being a very strongly built ship, she suffered less damage 
than we supposed, and, as the tide ran out, she lay high 
and dry on the bar, with no more serious injury than the 
loss of her false keel and a few sections of her copper 
sheathing. 

As she was lying on her beam-ends, with her deck ca^ 
reened at an angle of forty-five degrees, it was impossible 
to hoist anything out of her hold, but we- made prepara- 
tions at once to discharge her cargo in boats as soon as 
another tide should raise her into an upright position. 
We felt little hope of being able to save the ship, but it 
was all-important that her cargo should be discharged 
before she should go to pieces. Capt. Tobezin, of the 
Russian steamer Saghalin, offered us the use of all his 
boats and the assistance of his crew, and on the following 
day we began work with six or seven boats, a large lighter, 
and about fifty men. The sea still continued to run very 
high ; the barque recommenced her pounding against the 
bottom ; the lighter swamped and sank with a full load 
about a hundred yards from shore, and a miscellaneous 
assortment of boxes, crates, and flour-barrels went swim- 
ming up the river with the tide. Notwithstanding all 
these misfortunes, we kept perseveringly at work with the 
boats as long as there was water enough around the 



TLNT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 377 

barque to float them, and by the time the tide ran out we 
could congratulate ourselves upon having saved provisions 
enough to insure us against starvation, even though the 
ship should go to pieces that night. On the 25th the 
wind abated somewhat in violence, the sea went down, 
and as the barque did not seem to be seriously injured we 
began to entertain some hope of saving both ship and 
cargo. From the 25 th until the 29th of September, all the 
boats of the Sakhalin and of the Palmetto, with the crews 
of both vessels, were constantly engaged in transporting 
stores from the barque to the shore, and on the 30th at 
least half of the Palmetto's cargo was safely discharged. 
So far as we could judge, there would be nothing to pre- 
vent her from going to sea with the first high tide in Oc- 
tober. A careful examination proved that she had sus- 
tained no greater injury than the loss of her false keel, 
and this, in the opinion of the Saghalirfs officers, would 
not make her any the less seaworthy, or interfere to any 
extent with her sailing. A new difficulty, however, pre- 
sented itself. The crew of the Palmetto were all 
negroes; and as soon as they learned that Major Abasa 
intended tc send the barque to San Francisco that fall, 
they promptly refused to go, declaring that the vessel 
was unseaworthy, and that they preferred to spend the 
winter in Siberia rather than risk a voyage in her to 
America. Major Abasa immediately called a commission 
of the officers of the Sag/mli/i, and requested them to 
make another examination of the bark and give him their 
opinion in writing as to her seaworthiness. The 
examination was made, and the opinion given that she 



378 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

was entirely fit for a voyage to Petropavjovski, Kamtehatka, 
and probably to San Francisco. This decision was read to 
the negroes, but they still persisted in their refusal. After 
warning them of the consequences of mutiny, the Major 
ordered their ring-leader to be put in irons, and he was 
conveyed on board the Saghalin and imprisoned in the 
" black hole ;" but his comrades still held out. It was of 
vital importance that the Palmetto should go to sea with 
the first high tide, because the season was already far 
advanced, and she must inevitably be wrecked by ice if 
she remained in the river later than the middle of Octo- 
ber. 

Besides this, Major Abasa would be compelled to leave 
for Yakoutsk on the steamer Saghalin, and the latter was 
now ready to go to sea. On the afternoon of the ist, just 
as the Saghalin was getting up steam to start, the negroes 
sent word to the Major that if he would release the man 
whom he had caused to be put in irons, they would do their 
best to finish unloading the Palmetto and to get her back 
to San Francisco. The man was promptly released, and 
two hours afterwards Major Abasa sailed on the Saghalin 
for Okhotsk, leaving us to do the best we could with our 
half-wrecked stranded ship and her mutinous crew. 

The cargo of the barque was still only half discharged, 
and we continued for the next five days to unload in boats \ 
but it was hard, discouraging work, as there were only six 
hours in the twenty- four during which boats could reach 
the ship, and those six hours were from eleven o'clock p. M. 
to five in the morning. At all other times the ship lay on 
her beam-ends, and the water around her was too shallow 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 379 

to float even a plank. To add, if possible, to our difficul 
ties and to our anxiety, the weather became suddenly 
colder, the thermometer fell to zero, masses of floating 
ice came in with every tide and tore off great sheets of 
the vessel's copper as they drifted past, and the river soon 
became so choked up with icy fragments that we were 
obliged to haul the boats back and forth with ropes. In 
spite of weather, water, and ice, however, the vessel's 
cargo was slowly but steadily discharged, and by the ioth 
of October nothing remained on board except a few hogs- 
heads of flour, some salt beef and pork which we did not 
want, and seventy-five or a hundred tons of coal. These 
we determined to let her carry back to San Francisco as 
ballast. The tides were now getting successively higher 
and higher every day, and on the nth the Palmetto floated 
for the first time in almost three weeks. As soon as her 
keel cleared the bar she was swung around into the chan- 
nel, head to sea, and moored with light kedge-anchors, 
ready for a start on the following day. Since the intensely- 
cold weather of the previous week, her crew of negroes 
had expressed no further desire to spend a winter in Si- 
beria; and unless the wind should veer suddenly to the 
southward, we could see nothing to prevent her from get- 
ting safely out of the river. The wind for once proved 
favorable, and at 2 p.m. on the 12th of October the Pal- 
metto shook out her long-furled courses and topsails, cut 
the cables of her kedge-anchors, and with a light breeze 
from the northeast, moved slowly out into the gulf. Never 
was music more sweet to my ears than the hearty " Yo 
heave ho ! " of her negro crew as they sheeted home the 



380 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

topgallant sails outside the bar ! The barque was safely 
at sea. She was not a day too soon in making her escape. 
In less than a week after her departure, the river and the 
upper part of the gulf were so packed with ice that it 
would have been impossible for her to move or to avoid 
total wreck. 

The prospects of the enterprise at the opening of the 
second winter were more favorable than they had been 
at any time since its inception. The Company's vessels, 
it is. true, had been very late in their arrival, and one of 
them, the Onward, had not come at all ; but the Pal- 
metto had brought twelve or fourteen more men and a 
full supply of tools and provisions, Major Abasa had gone 
to Yakoutsk to hire six or eight hundred native laborers 
and purchase three hundred horses, and we hoped that 
the first of February would find the work progressing rap- 
idly along the whole extent of the line. 

As soon as possible after the departure of the Palmetto 
I sent Lieut. Sandford and the twelve men whom she had 
brought into the woods on the Geezhega River above the 
settlement, supplied them with axes, snow-shoes, dog- 
sledges, and provisions, and set them at work cutting 
poles and building houses, to be distributed across the 
steppes between Geezhega and Penzhinsk Gulf. I also 
sent a small party of natives under Mr. Wheeler to Gamsk, 
with five or six sledge-loads of axes and provisions for 
Lieut. Arnold, and despatches to be forwarded to Maj. 
Abasa. For the present nothing more could be done on 
the coast of the Okhotsk Sea, and I prepared to start 
once more for the North. We had heard nothing whatevei 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 381 

fj om Lieut. Bush and party since the first of the previous 
May, and we were of course anxious to know what success 
he had met with in cutting and rafting poles down the 
Anadyr River, and what were his prospects and plans for 
the winter. The late arrival of the Palmetto at Geezhega 
had led us to fear that the vessel destined for the Anadyr 
might also have been detained, and have placed Lieut. 
Bush and party in a very unpleasant, if not dangerous 
situation. Major Abasa had directed me therefore, when 
he sailed for Okhotsk, to go by the first winter road to 
Anadyrsk and ascertain whether the Company's vessels 
had been at the mouth of the river, and whether Bush 
needed any assistance. As there was no longer anything to 
detain me at Geezhega, I packed up my camp equipage 
and extra fur clothes, loaded five sledges with tea, sugar, 
tobacco, and provisions, and on November 2d started 
with six Cossacks for my last journey to the Arctic 
Circle. 

In all my Siberian experience I can recall no expedition 
which was so lonely and dismal as this. For the sake of 
saving transportation, I had decided not to take any of my 
American comrades with me ; but by many a silent camp- 
fire did I regret my self-denying economy, and long for 
the hearty laugh and good-humored raillery of my " fidus 
Achates" — Dodd. During twenty-five days I did not meet 
a civilized being or speak a word of my native language, 
and at the end of that time I would have been glad to 
talk to an intelligent American dog. " Atoneness," says 
Beecher, " is to social life what rests are to music ; " but a 
journey made up entirely of " aloneness " is no more en 



382 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

tertaining than a piece of music made up entirely of rest« 
— onl) a vivid imagination can make anything out of either. 
At Kooeel, on the coast of Penzhinsk Gulf, I was com* 
pelled to leave my good-humored Cossacks and take foi 
drivers half a dozen stupid, sullen, shaven-headed Koraks, 
and from that time I was more lonesome than ever. I 
had been able to talk a little with the Cossacks, and had 
managed to pass away the long winter evenings by the 
camp-fire in questioning them about their peculiar beliefs 
and superstitions, and listening to their characteristic 
stories of Siberian life ; but now, as I could not speak 
the Korak language, I was absolutely without an} resource 
for amusement. 

• My new drivers were the ugliest, most villanous-look- 
ing Koraks that it would have been possible to select in 
all the Penzhinsk Gulf settlements, and their obstinacy 
and sullen stupidity kept me in a chronic state of ill- 
humor from the time we left Kooeel until we reached 
Penzhina. Only by threatening them periodically with a 
revolver could I make them go at all. The art of camping 
out comfortably in bad weather they knew nothing what- 
ever about, and in vain did I try to teach them. In spite of 
all my instructions and illustrations, they would persist 
night after night in digging a deep narrow hole in the 
snow for a fire, and squatting around the top of it like 
frogs around the edge of a well, while I made a camp for 
myself. Of the art of cooking they were equally ignorant, 
and the mystery of canned provisions they could never 
fathom. Why the contents of one can should be boiled, 
while the contents of another precisely similar can should 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 383 

be fried — why one turned into soup and another into a 
cake — were questions which they gravely discussed night 
after night, but about which they could never agree. 
Astounding were the experiments which they occasionally 
tried upon the contents of these incomprehensible tin 
boxes. Tomatoes they brought to me fried into cakes with 
butter, peaches they mixed with canned beef and boiled 
for soup, green corn they sweetened, and desiccated 
vegetables they broke into lumps with stones. Never by 
any accident did they hit upon the right combination, 
unless I stood over them constantly and superintended 
personally the preparation of my own supper. Ignorant 
as they were, however, of the nature of these strange 
American eatables, they always manifested a great curi- 
osity to taste them, and their experiments in this way 
were sometimes very amusing. One evening, soon after 
we left Shestakova, ihc^ happened to see me eating a 
pickled cucumber, and as this was something which had 
never come within the range of their limited gastronomical 
experience, they asked me for a piece to taste. Knowing 
well what the result would be, I gave the whole cucumber 
to the dirtiest, worst-looking vagabond in the party, and 
motioned to him to take a good bite. As he put it to 
his lips his comrades watched him with breathless curiosity 
to see how he liked it. For a moment his face wore an 
expression of blended surprise, wonder, and disgust which 
was irresistibly ludicrous, and he seemed disposed to spit 
the disagreeable morsel out ; but with a strong effort he 
controlled himself, forced his features into a ghastly 
imitation- of. satisfaction, smacked his lips, declared it was 



384 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

" akhmel nemelkhin " — very good, and handed the pickle 
to his next neighbor. The latter was equally aston- 
ished and disgusted with its unexpected sourness, but, 
rather than admit his disappointment and be laughed at 
by the others, he also pretended that it was delicious, and 
passed it along. Six men in succession went through 
with this transparent farce with the greatest solemnity ; but 
when they had all tasted it, and all been victimized, they 
burst out into a simultaneous "ty-e-e-e" of astonishment, 
and gave free expression to their long-suppressed emo- 
tions of disgust. I The vehement spitting, coughing, and 
washing out of mouths with snow, which succeeded this 
outburst, proved that the taste for pickles is an acquired 
one, and that man in his aboriginal state does not possess 
it. What particularly amused me, however, was the way 
in which they imposed on one another. Each individual 
Korak, as soon as he found that he had been victimized, 
saw at once the necessity of getting even by victimizing 
the next man, and not one of them would admit that 
there was anything bad about the pickle until they had all 
tasted it. " Misery loves company," and human nature 
is the same all the world over. Dissatisfied as they were 
with the result of this experiment, they were not at all 
daunted, but still continued to ask me for samples of 
every tin can I opened. Just before we reached Penzhina, 
however, a catastrophe occurred which relieved me from 
their importunity, and inspired them with a superstitious 
reverence for tin cans which no subsequent familiarity 
could ever overcome. We were accustomed, when we 
came into camp at night, to set our cans into a bed of hot 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 385 

ashes and embers to thaw out, and I had cautioned my 
vlrivers repeatedly not to do this until after the cans had 
been opened. I could not of course explain to them that 
the accumulation of steam would cause the cans to burst ; 
but I did tell them that it would be " atkin "— bad— 
if they did not make a hole in the cover before putting 
the can on the fire. One evening, however, they forgot or 
neglected to take this precaution, and while they were all 
squatting in a circle around the fire, absorbed in meditation, 
one of the cans suddenly blew up with a tremendous explo- 
sion, set free an immense cloud of steam, and scattered 
fragments of boiling hot mutton in every direction. Had a 
volcano opened suddenly under the camp-fire, the Koraks 
could not have been more dismayed. They had not time 
to get up and run away, so they rolled over backward 
with their heels in the air, shouted " Kammuk ! " — the 
Devil — and gave themselves up for lost. My hearty 
laughter finally reassured them, and made them a little 
ashamed of their momentary panic ; but from that time 
forward they handled tin cans as if they were loaded 
percussion shells, and could never again be induced to 
taste a morsel of their contents. 

Our progress toward Anadyrsk after we left the coast 
of the Okhotsk Sea was very slow, on account both of the 
shortness of the days, and the depth and softness of the 
freshly fallen snow. Frequently, for ten or fifteen miles 
at a stretch, we were compelled to break a road on snow- 
shoes for our heavily loaded sledges, ai'd even then our 
tired dogs could hardly struggle through the soft powdery 
drifts. The weather, too, was so intensely cold that my 
17 



38O TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

mercurial thermometer, which indicated only —23°, was 
almost useless. For several days the mercury never rose 
out of the bulb, and I could only estimate the tempera- 
ture by the rapidity with which my supper froze after 
being taken from the fue. More than once soup turned 
from a liquid to a solid in my hands, and geren corn 
froze to my tin plate before I could finish eating it. 

On the fourteenth day after leaving Geezhega we 
reached the native settlement of Penzhina, two hun- 
dred versts from Anadyrsk. Ours was the first arrival at 
that place since the previous May, and the whole popu- 
lation of the village — men, women, children, and dogs — 
turned out en masse to meet us, with the most joyful de- 
monstrations. Six months had elapsed since they last saw 
a strange face or heard from the outside world, and they 
proceeded to fire a salute from half a dozen rusty old 
muskets, as a faint expression of their delight. 

I had confidently expected when I left Geezhega that 
I would meet somewhere on the road a courier with news 
and despatches from Bush • and 1 was very much dis- 
appointed and a little alarmed when I reached Penzhina 
to find that no one had arrived at that place from 
Anadyrsk, and that nothing had been heard from our 
party since the previous spring. I felt a presentiment 
that something was wrong, because Bush had been ex- 
pressly directed to send a courier to Geezhega by the 
first winter road, and it was now late in November, 

On the following day my worst anticipations weie le- 
alized. Late in the evening, as I was sitting in the house 
of one of the Russian peasants drinking tea, the cry was 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. $8'} 

raised that " Anady^ski yaydoot " — some one was coming 
from Anadyrsk ; and running hastily out of the house 1 
met the long-haired Anadyrsk priest just as he stepped 
from his sledge in front of the door. My first question of 
course was, " Where's Bush ? " But my heart sank as the 
priest replied, " Bokh yevo zniet" — God only knows. 
"But where did you see him last — where did he spend 
the summer?" I inquired. "I saw him last at the 
mouth of the Anadyr River, in July," said the priest, " and 
since that time nothing has been heard from him." A few 
more questions brought out the whole dismal story. 
Bush, Macrae, Harder, and Smith, had gone down the 
Anadyr River in June with a large raft of station-houses, 
intended for erection along its banks. After putting up 
these houses at necessary points, they had gone on in 
canoes to Anadyr Bay, to await the arrival of the Com- 
pany's vessels from San Francisco. Here the priest had 
joined them and had lived with them several weeks ; but 
late in July their scanty supply of provisions had given 
out, the expected ships had not come, and the priest re- 
turned to the settlement, leaving the unfortunate Ameri- 
cans in a half-starving condition at the mouth of the river. 
Since that time nothing whatever had been heard from 
them, and as the priest mournfully said, " God only 
knew " where they were and what had happened to them. 
This was bad news, but it was not the worst. In conse- 
quence of the entire failure of the salmon fisheries of the 
Anadyr River that season, a terrible famine had broken 
out at Anadyrsk, part of the inhabitants and nearly 
all the dogs had died of starvation, and the village was 



388 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

almost deserted. Everybody who had dogs enough to 
draw a sledge had gone in search of the Wandering 
Chookchees, with whom they could live until another sum- 
mer ; and the few people who were left in the settlement 
were eating their boots and scraps of reindeer-skin to 
keep them alive. Early in October a party of natives 
had gone in search of Bush and his comrades on dog- 
sledges, but more than a month had now elapsed since 
their departure and they had not yet returned. In all 
probability they had starved to death on the great desc 
late plains of the Lower Anadyr, as they had been com- 
pelled to start with only ten days' provisions, and it was 
doubtful whether they would meet Wandering Chook j 
chees who would supply them with more. 

Such was the first news which I heard from the North- 
ern District — a famine at Anadyrsk, Bush and party 
missing since July, and eight natives and dog-sledges 
since the middle of October. I did not see how the 
state of affairs could be any worse, and I spent a sleep- 
less night in thinking over the situation and trying to 
decide upon some plan of operations. Much as I dreaded 
another journey to the mouth of the Anadyr in midwin- 
ter, I saw no way of avoiding it. The fact that nothing 
had been heard from Bush in four months proved that he 
had met with some misfortune, and it was clearly my duty 
to go to Anadyr Bay in search of him if there was a pos- 
sibility of doing so. On the following morning, therefore, 
I began buying a supply of dog-food, and before night I 
had collected 2,000 dried fish and a quantity of seals' 
blubber, which I felt sure would last five dog-teams at 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 389 

least forty days. I then sent for the chief of a band of 
Wandering Koraks who happened to be encamped neai 
Penzhina, and prevailed upon him to drive his herd of 
reindeer to Anadyrsk, and kill enough to supply the 
starving inhabitants with food until they could get other 
help. I also sent two natives back to Geezhega on dog- 
sledges, with a letter to the Russian Governor, apprising 
him of the famine, and another to Dc-dd, directing him to 
load every dog-sledge he could get with provisions and 
send them at once to Penzhina, where I would make ar- 
rangements for their transportation to the famine-stricken 
settlement. 

I started myself for Anadyrsk on November 20th, with 
five of the best men and an equal number of the best 
dog-teams in Penzhina. These men and dogs I intended 
to take with me to the mouth of the Anadyr River if I 
heard nothing from Bush before I reached Anadyrsk, 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

HUSH RE Pivn US- -SERIOUS DILEMMA— STARVATION THREAT 
ENED — EIGHT HUNDRED LABORERS HIRED — ENTERPRIS* 
ING AMERICAN — A WILDERNESS. 

Availing ourselves of the road which had been broken 
by the sledges of the priest, we made more rapid progress 
toward Anadyrsk than I had anticipated, and on Novem- 
ber 2 2d we camped at the foot of a range of low moun- 
tains known as the " Rooske Krebet," only thirty versts 
south of the settlement. With the hope of reaching our 
destination before the next morning, we had intended to 
travel all night ; but a storm sprang up most inopportunely 
just before dark and prevented us from getting over the 
pass. About midnight the wind abated a little, the moon 
came out occasionally through rifts in the clouds, and, 
fearing that we should have no better opportunity, we 
roused up our tired dogs and began the ascent of the 
mountain. It was a wild, lonely scene. The snow was 
drifting in dense clouds down the pass, half hiding from 
sight the bare white peaks on either side, and blotting out 
all the landscape behind us as we ascended. Now and 
ihtn the misty moonbeams would struggle faintly through 
the clouds of flying snow and light up for a moment the 
great barren slope of the mountain above our heads ; then 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 391 

they would be suddenly smothered in dark Vapor, the 
wind would come roaring down the ravine again, and 
everything would vanish in clouds and darkness. Blinded 
and panting for breath, we finally gained the summit, and 
as we stopped for a moment to rest our tired dogs, we 
were suddenly startled by the sight of a long line of dark 
objects passing swiftly across the bare mountain-top only 
a few yards away, and plunging down into the ravine out 
of which we had just come. I caught only a glimpse of 
them, but they seemed to be dog-sledges, and with a great 
shout we started in pursuit. Dog-sledges they were, and 
as we drew nearer I recognized among them the old seal- 
skin covered "pavoska" which I had left at Anadyrsk 
the previous winter, and which I knew must be occupied 
by an American. With heart beating fast from excite- 
ment I sprang from my sledge, ran up to the "pavoska," 
and demanded in English, " Who is it? " It was too dark 
to recognize faces, but I knew well the voice that an- 
swered "Bush ! " and never was that voice more welcome. 
For more than three weeks I had not seen a countryman 
nor spoken a word of English ; I was lonely and disheart- 
ened by constantly accumulating misfortunes, when sud- 
denly at midnight, on a desolate mountain-top, in a 
storm, I met an old friend and comrade whom I had 
almost given up as dead. It was a joyful meeting. The 
natives who had gone to Anadyr Bay in search of Bush 
and his party had returned in safety, bringing Bush with 
them, and he was on his way to Geezhega to carry the 
news of the famine and get provisions and help. He had 
been stopped by the storm as we had, and when it abated 



392 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

a little at midnight we had both started from opposite 
sides to cross the mountain, and had thus met upon the 
summit. 

We went back together to my deserted camp on the 
south side of the mountain, blew up the embers of my 
still smouldering fire, spread down our bear-skins ; and sat 
there talking until we were as white as polar bears with 
the drifting snow, and day began to break in the East. 

Bush brought more bad news. They had gone down 
to the mouth of the Anadyr, as the priest had already 
informed me, in the early part of June, and had waited 
there for the Company's vessels almost four months. 
Their provisions had finally given out, and they had been 
compelled to subsist themselves upon the few fish which 
they were able to catch from day to day, and to go 
hungry when they could catch none. For salt they 
scraped the staves of an old pork barrel which had been 
left at Macrae's camp the previous winter, and for coffee 
they drank burned rice water. At last, however, salt and 
rice, both failed, and they were reduced to an unvarying 
and often scanty diet of boiled fish, without coffee, bread, 
or salt. Living in the midst of a great moss swamp fifty 
miles from the nearest tree, dressing in skins for the want 
of anything else, suffering frequently from hunger, tor- 
mented constantly by mosquitoes, from which they had 
no protection, and looking day after day and week after 
week for vessels which never came, their situation was 
certainly miserable. The Company's barque Golden 
Gate had finally arrived in October, bringing twenty-five 
men and a small steamer ; but winter had already set in, 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 393 

and five days afterwards, before they could finish dis 
chaiging the vessel's cargo, she was wrecked by ice. Hei 
crew and nearly all her stores were saved, but by this 
misfortune the number of the party was increased from 
twenty-five to forty-seven, without any corresponding in- 
crease in the quantity of provisions for their subsistence. 
Fortunately, however, there were bands of Wandering 
Chookchees within reach, and from them Bush succeeded 
in buying a considerable number of reindeer, which he 
caused to be frozen and stored away for future use. Af- 
ter the freezing over of the Anadyr River, Bush was left as 
Macrae had been the previous winter, without any means 
of getting up to the settlement, a distance of 250 miles; 
but he had foreseen this difficulty, and had left orders at 
Anadyrsk that if he failed to return in canoes before the 
river closed, dog-sledges should be sent to his assist- 
ance. Notwithstanding the famine the dog-sledges were 
sent, and Bush, with two men, had returned on them to 
Anadyrsk. Finding that settlement famine-stricken and 
deserted, he had started without a moment's delay for 
Geezhega, his exhausted and starving dogs dying along 
the road. 

The situation of affairs, then, when I met Bush on the 
summit of the Rooski Krebet, was briefly as follows : — 

Forty-four men were living at the mouth of the Anadyr 
River, 250 miles from the nearest settlement, without pro- 
visions enough to last them through the winter, and with- 
out any means whatever of getting away. The village of 
Anadyrsk was deserted, and with the exception of a few 
teams at Penzhina, there were no available dogs in all the 



394 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Northern District, from the Okhotsk Sea to Bearing** 
Straitz. Under such circumstances, what could be done ? 
Bush and I discussed the question all night beside our lonely 
camp-fire under the Rooski Krebet Mountains, but could 
come to no decision, and after sleeping three or four hours 
ive started for Anadyrsk. Late in the afternoon we drove 
into the settlement — but it could be called a settlement no 
longer. The two upper villages — "Osolkin" and "Po- 
korookof," which on the previous winter had presented so 
thriving an appearance, were now left without a single in- 
habitant, and Markova itself was only occupied by a few 
starving families whose dogs had all died, and who were 
therefore unable to get away. No chorus of howls an- 
nounced our arrival ; no people came out to meet us ; the 
windows of the houses were closed with wooden shutters, 
and half buried in drifts ; the snow was unbroken by 
paths, and the whole village was silent and desolate. It 
looked as if one-half of the inhabitants had died and the 
other half had gone to the funeral ! We stopped at a 
small log-house where Bush had established his head- 
quarters, and spent the remainder of the day in talking 
over our respective experiences. 

The unpleasant situation in which we found ourselves 
placed was due almost entirely to the famine at Anadyrsk. 
The late arrival and consequent wreck of the Golden 
Gate was of course a great misfortune ; but it would not 
have been irretrievable had not the famine deprived us of 
all means of transportation. The inhabitants of Anadyrsk, 
as well as of all the other Russian settlements in Siberia, 
are dependent for their very existence upon the fish 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 395 

which enter the rivers every summer to spawn, and are 
caught by thousands as they make their way up stream 
toward the shallow water of the tributary brooks in the in- 
terior of the country. As long as these migrations of the 
fish are regular the natives have no difficulty in providing 
themselves with an abundance of food ; but once in every 
three or four years, for some unexplained reason, the fish 
fail to come, and the following winter brings precisely such 
a famine as the one which I have described at Anadyrsk, 
only frequently much worse. In i860 more than a hun- 
dred and fifty natives died of starvation in four settlements 
on the coast of Penzhinsk Gulf, and the peninsula of 
Kamtchatka has been swept by famines again and again 
since the Russian conquest, until its population has been 
reduced more than one-half. Were it not for the Wander- 
ing Koraks, who come to the relief of the starving people 
with their immense herds of reindeer, I firmly believe that 
the settled population of Siberia, including the Russians, 
Chooances, Gookaghiris, and Kamtchadals, would become 
extinct in less than fifty years. The great distance of the 
settlements one from another, and the absence of any 
means of intercommunication in summer, make each vil- 
lage entirely dependent upon its own resources, and pre- 
vent any mutual support and assistance, until it is too 
late to be of any avail. The first victims of such famines 
are always the dogs ; and the people, being thus deprived 
of their only means of transportation, cannot get away 
from the famine-stricken settlement, and after eating their 
boots, seal-skin thongs, and scraps of untanned leather, 
they finally die of pure starvation. For this, however, 



396 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

their own careless improvidence is primarily responsible. 
They might catch and dry fish enough in one year to last 
them three ; but instead of doing this, they provide barely 
food enough to last them through one winter, and take 
the. chances of starvation on the next. No experience, 
however severe — no suffering, however great, ever teaches 
them prudence. A man who has barely escaped starva- 
tion one winter, will run precisely the same risk on the 
next, rather than take a little extra trouble and catch "\ 
few more fish. Even when they see that a famine is in- 
evitable, they take no measures to mitigate its severity or 
to obtain relief, until they find themselves absolutely with- 
out a morsel to put in their mouths. 

A native of Anadyrsk once happened to tell me, in the 
course of conversation, that he had only five days' dog- 
food left. " But," said I, " what do you intend to do at 
the end of those five days ?" — " Bokh gevo zniet" — God 
only knows ! — was the characteristic response, and the na- 
tive turned carelessly away as if it were a matter of no 
consequence whatever. If God only knew, he seemed to 
think that it made very little difference whether anybody 
else knew or not. After he had fed his dogs the last 
dried fish in his store-house, it would be time enough to 
look about for more ; but until then he did not propose to 
borrow any unnecessary trouble. This well-known reck- 
lessness and improvidence of the natives finally led the 
Russian Government to establish at several of the North- 
eastern Siberian settlements a peculiar institution which 
may be called a Fish Savings Bank, or Starvation Insur- 
ance Office. It was organized at first by the gradual pur- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 397 

chase from the natives of about a hundred thousand dried 
fish, or " gookala," which constituted the capital stock of 
the bank. Ev try male inhabitant of the settlement was 
then obliged by law to pay into this bank annually one- 
tenth of all the fish which he caught, and no excuse 
was admitted for a failure. The surplus fund thus created 
was added every year to the capital, so that as long as 
the fish continued to come regularly, the resources of 
the bank were constantly accumulating. When, however, 
the fish for any reason failed and a famine was threatened, 
every depositor — or, more strictly speaking, tax-payer — ■ 
was allowed to borrow from the bank enough fish to sup- 
ply his immediate wants, upon condition of returning the 
same on the following summer, together with the regular 
annual payment of ten per cent. It is evident that an 
institution once thoroughly established upon such a basis, 
and managed upon such principles, could never fail, but 
would constantly increase its capital of dried fish until the 
settlement would be perfectly secure against even the pos- 
sibility of famine. At Kolyma, a Russian post on the 
Arctic Ocean, where the experiment was first tried, it 
proved a complete success. The bank sustained the in- 
habitants of the village through severe famines during 
two consecutive winters, and its capital in 1867 amounted 
to 300,000 dried fish, and was accumulating at the rate of 
20,000 a year. Anadyrsk not being a Russian military post, 
had no bank of this kind ; but had our work been continued 
another year, we intended to petition the Government for 
the organization of such institutions at all the settlements, 
Russian and native, along the whole route of our line. 



398 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

In the mean time, however, the famine was irremedi 
able, and on December ist, 1867, poor Bush found him« 
self in a deserted settlement 600 versts from Geezhega, 
without money, without provisions, and without means of 
transportation — but with a helpless party of forty-four men, 
at the mouth of the Anadyr River, dependent upon him 
for support. Building a telegraph line under such circum- 
stances was out of the question. All that he could hope 
to do would be to keep his parties supplied with provisions 
until the arrival of horses and men from Yakootsk should 
enable him to resume work. 

On November 29th, finding that I could be of no further 
assistance at Anadyrsk, and that I was only helping to 
eat up more rapidly Bush's scanty supply of provisions, I 
started with two Penzhina sledges for Geezhega. As I did 
not again visit the Northern District, and shall have no 
further occasion to refer to it, I will relate briefly here 
the little which I afterward learned by letter with regard, 
to the misfortunes and unhappy experiences of the Com- 
pany's employes in that region. The sledges which I had 
ordered from Geezhega reached Penzhina late in Decem- 
ber, with about 3,000 pounds of beans, rice, hard bread, 
and assorted stores. As soon as possible after their 
arrival Bush sent half a dozen sledges and a small quantity 
of provisions to the party at the mouth of the Anadyr 
River, and in February they returned, bringing six men. 
Determined to accomplish something, however little, Bush 
sent these six men to a point on the Myan River, about 
seventy five versts from Anadyrsk, and set them at work 
putting poles on snow-shoes along the route of the line 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 39$ 

Later in the winter another expedition was sent to Anadyi 
Bay, and on the 4th of March it also returned, bringing 
Lieut. Macrae and seven more men. This party experi- 
enced terrible weather on its way from the mouth of the 
river to Anadyrsk, and one of its members — a man named 
Robinson — died in a storm about i5oversts east of the 
settlement. His body was left unburied in one of the 
houses which Bush had erected the previous summer and 
his comrades pushed on. As soon as they reached the 
Anadyrsk they were sent to the Myan, and by the middle 
of March the two parties together had cut and distributed 
along the banks of that river about 3,000 poles. In April, 
however, their provisions began again to run short, and 
they were gradually reduced to the verge of starvation, and 
Bush started a second time for Geezhega with a few mise- 
rable half-starved and exhausted dog-teams, to get more 
provisions. During his absence the unfortunate parties 
on the Myan were left to take care of themselves, and 
after consuming their last morsel of food and eating up 
three horses which had previously been sent to them from 
Anadyrsk, they organized themselves into a forlorn hope, 
and started on snow-shoes for the settlement. It was a 
terrible walk for half-starving men; and although they 
reached their destination in safety, they were entirely 
exhausted, and when they approached the village could 
hardly go a hundred yards at a time without falling down. 
At Anadyrsk they succeeded in obtaining a small quantity 
of reindeer meat, upon which they lived until the return 
of Lieut. Bush from Geezhega with provisions, some tirni 
in May. Thus ended the second winter's work in the 



400 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

Northern District. As far as practicable results wer* 
concerned, it was an almost complete failure ; but f 
developed in our officers and men a courage, a perseve- 
rance, and a patient endurance of hardships which deserv- 
ed, and which under more favorable auspices would have 
achieved, the most brilliant success. In the month of 
February, while Mr. Norton and his men were at work on 
the Myan River, the thermometer indicated more than forty 
degrees below zero during sixteen days out of twenty-one, 
sank five times to — 6o° and once to — 6&° f or one hundred 
degrees below the freezing-point of water. Cutting poles 
on snow-shoes, in a temperature ranging from 40 to 6o° 
below zero, is in itself no slight trial of men's hardihood; 
but when to this are added the sufferings of hunger and 
the peril of utter starvation in a perfect wilderness, it 
passes human endurance, and the only wonder is that 
Norton and Macrae could accomplish as much as <-hey 
did. 

Returning from Anadyrsk, I reached Geezhega on the 
15th of December, after a hard and lonely journey of six- 
teen days. A special courier had just arrived there from 
Yakootsk, bringing letters and orders from Major Abasa. 

He had succeeded, with the sanction and co-operation 
of the Governor of that Province, in hiring for a period 
of three years' a force of eight hundred Yakoot laborers, 
at a fixed rate of sixty roubles, or about forty dollars a 
year for each man. He had also purchased three hun- 
dred Yakoot horses and pack-saddles, and an immense 
quantity of material and provisions of various kinds 
fcr the equipment and subsistence of horses and w:>rk 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 40I 

men. A portion of these men were already on theii 
way to Okhotsk, and the whola force would be sent 
thither in successive detachments as rapidly as possible, 
and distributed from there along the whole route of the 
line. It would be necessary, of course, to put this large 
force of native laborers under skilled American superin- 
tendence ; and as we had not foremen enough in all our 
parties to oversee nwe than five or six gangs of men, 
Major Abasa had determined to send a courier to Pe- 
tropavlovski for the officers who had sailed from San 
Francisco in the barque Onward, and who he presumed 
had been landed by that vessel in Kamtchatka. He 
directed me, therefore, to make arrangements for the trans- 
portation of these men from Petropavlovski to Geezhega, 
to prepare immediately for the reception of fifty or sixty 
Yakoot laborers, to send six hundred army rations to 
Gamsk for the subsistence of our American party there, 
and three thousand pounds of rye flour for a party of 
Yakoots who would reach there in February. To fill 
all these requisitions I had at my disposal about fifteen 
dog-sledges, and even these had gone with provisions to 
Penzhina for the relief of Lieut. Bush. With the assis- 
tance of the Russian Governor I succeeded in getting two 
Cossacks to go to Petropavlovski after the Americans 
who were presumed to have been left there by the 
0?iward — and half a dozen Koraks to carry provisions 
to Gamsk, while Lieut. Arnold himself sent sledges for 
the six hundred rations. I thus retained my own fifteen 
sledges to supply Lieut. Sandford and party, who were 
now cutting poles on the Tilghai River, north of Pen 



4©2 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

zhinsk Gulf. One day late in December, while Dodd 
and I were out on the river above the settlement 
training a team of dogs, word was brought to us that 
an American had arrived from Kamtchatka, bringing 
news from the long-missing barque Onward and the 
party of men whom she landed at Petropavlovski. Hur- 
rying back to the village with all possible speed, we 
found Mr. Lewis, the American in question, seated com- 
fortably in our house drinking tea. This enterprising 
young man — who, by the way, was a telegraph operator, 
wholly unaccustomed to rough life — without being able to 
speak a word of Russian, had traversed alone, in mid- 
winter, the whole wilderness of Kamtchatka from Petro- 
pavlovski to Geezhega. He had been forty-two days on 
the road, and had travelled on dog-sledges nearly twelve 
hundred miles, with no companions except a few natives 
and a Cossack from Tigil. He seemed disposed to look 
upon this achievement very modestly, but in some re- 
spects it was one of the most remarkable journeys ever 
made by the Company's employes. 

The Onward, as we had supposed, being unable to 
reach Geezhega, on account of the lateness of the season, 
had discharged her cargo and landed most of her passen- 
gers at Petropavlovski ; and Mr. Lewis had been sent by 
the chief of the party to report their situation to Major 
Abasa, and find out what they should do. 

After the arrival of Mr. Lewis nothing of special im- 
portance occurred until March. Arnold at Gamsk, Sand- 
ford on the Tilghai, and Bush' at Anadyrsk, were trying 
with the few men which they had to accomplish some 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 40j 

work ; but, owing to deep snow-storms, intensely cold 
weather, and a general lack everywhere of provisions and 
dogs, their efforts were mostly fruitless. In January I 
made an excursion with twelve or fifteen sledges to Sand- 
ford's camp on the Tilghai, and attempted to move his 
party to another point thirty or forty versts nearer Gee- 
zheega ; but in a severe storm on the Kooeel steppe we 
were broken up, dispersed, and all lost separately, and af 
ter wandering around four or five days in clouds of drift- 
ing snow which hid even our dogs from sight, Sandford 
with a portion of his party returned to the Tilghai, and I 
with the balance to Geezhega. 

Late in February the Cossack Kolmagorof arrived from 
Petropavlovski, Kamtchatka, bringing three of the men 
who had been landed there by the Onward. 

In March I received by a special courier from Yakootsk 
another letter and more orders from Major Abasa. The 
eight hundred laborers whom he had engaged were being 
rapidly sent forward to Okhotsk, and more than a hun- 
dred and fifty were already at work at that place and at 
Gamsk. The equipment and transportation of the re- 
mainder still required his personal supervision, and it 
would be impossible, he wrote, for him to return that 
winter to Geezhega. He could come, however, as far as 
the Korak settlement of Gamsk, three hundred versts west 
of Geezhega, and requested me to meet him at that place 
within twelve days after the receipt of his letter. I started 
at once with one American companion named Leet, tak- 
ing twelve days' dog-food and provisions. 

The country between Geezhega and Gamsk was entire 



404 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

\y different in character from anything which I had pre /ious 
ly seen in Siberia. There were no such great desolate plains 
as those between Geezhega and Anadyrsk and in the north- 
ern part of Kamtchatka. On the contrary, the whole coast 
of the Okhotsk Sea, for nearly six hundred miles west of 
Geezhega, was one wilderness of rugged, broken, almost 
impassable mountains, intersected by deep valleys and 
ravines, and heavily timbered with dense pine and larch 
forests. The Stanavoi range of mountains, which sweeps 
up around the Okhotsk Sea from the Chinese frontier, keeps 
everywhere near the coast line, and sends down between its 
lateral spurs hundreds of small rivers and streams which 
run through deep wooded valleys to the sea. The road, or 
rather the travelled route from Geezhega to Gamsk cros- 
ses all these streams and lateral spurs at right angles, keep- 
ing about midway between the great mountain range and 
the sea. Most of the dividing ridges between these 
streams are nothing but high, bare water-sheds, which 
can be easily crossed ; but at one point, about a hundred 
and fifty versts west of Geezhega, the central range sends 
out to the sea-coast a great spur of mountains 2,500 and 
3,000 feet in height, which completely blocks up the road. 
Along the bases of these mountains runs a deep gloomy 
valley known as the " Viliga," whose upper end pierces 
the central Stanavoi range and affords an outlet to the 
winds pent up between the steppes and the sea. In winter, 
when the open water of the Okhotsk Sea is warmer than 
the frozen plains north of the mountains, the air over the 
former rises, and a colder atmosphere rushes through the 
valley of the Viliga to takes its place. In summer, while 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 



405 



the water of the sea is still chilled with masses of unmelt 
ed ice, the great steppes behind the mountains are covered 
with vegetation and warm with almost perpetual sunshine, 
and the direction of the wind is consequently reversed. 
This valley of the Viliga, therefore, may be regarded as a 
great natural breathing-hole, through which the interior 
steppes respire once a year. At no other point does the 
Stanavoi range afford an opening through which the air can 
pass back and forth between the steppes and the sea, and 
as a natural consequence this ravine is swept by one al- 
most uninterrupted storm. While the weather everywhere 
else is calm and .still, the wind blows through the Viliga in 
a perfect hurricane, tearing up great clouds of snow from 
the mountain sides and carrying them far out to sea. For 
this reason it is dreaded by all natives who are compelled 
to pass that way, and is famous throughout Northeastern 
Siberia as "the stormy gorge of the Viliga 1" 

On the fifth day after leaving Geezhega our small party, 
increased by a Russian " pochtillion " and thiee or four 
sledges carrying the annual Kamtchatkan mail, drew neai 
the foot of the dreaded Viliga Mountains. Owing to 
deep snow our progress had not been so rapid as we had 
anticipated, and we were only able to reach on the fifth 
night a small yourt built to shelter travellers, near the 
mouth of a river called the Topollof ka, thirty versts from 
the Viliga. Here we camped, drank tea, and stretched 
ourselves out on the rough plank floor to sleep, knowing 
that a hard day's work awaited us on the morrow. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

JOURNEY TO GAMSK — VALLEY OF THE VILIGA-— A STORM 
— A PERILOUS PASS. 

" Ken-nan ! Oh Kennan ! Turn out ! It's daylight." 
A sleepy grunt and a still more drowsy " Is it ? " from the 
pile of furs lying on the rough plank floor betrayed no 
very lively interest on the part of the prostrate figure in 
the fact announced, while the heavy, long-drawn breathing 
which soon succeeded this momentary interruption prov- 
ed that more active measures must be taken to recall 
him from the land of dreams. " I say ! Kennan ! Wake 
up ! Breakfast has been ready this half-hour." The magic 
word breakfast appealed to a stronger feeling than drow- 
siness, and thrusting my head out from beneath its cov- 
ering of furs, I took a sleepy blinking view of the situation, 
endeavoring in a feeble sort of way to recollect where I 
was and how I came there. A bright crackling fire of 
resinous pine boughs was burning on the square log altai 
in the centre of the hut, radiating a fierce heat to its re- 
motest corner, and causing the perspiration to stand in 
great beads on its mouldy logs and rough board ceiling. 
The smoke rose lazily up through the square hole in the 
roof toward the white, solemn-looking stars which winked 
soberly at us between the dark overhanging branches of 
the larches. Mr. Leet, who acted as the Soyer of ouj 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 407 

campaign, was standing over me with a slice of bacor im- 
paled on a bowie-knife in one hand, and a poker in the 
other — both of which insignia of office he was brandishing 
furiously, with the intention of waking me up more effect- 
ually. His frantic gesticulations had the desired result 
With a vague impression that I had been shipwrecked on 
the Cannibal Islands and was about to be sacrificed to the 
tutelary deities, I sprang up and rubbed my eyes until I 
gathered together my scattered senses. Mr. Leet was in 
high glee. Our travelling companion, the postilion, had 
manifested for several days an inclination to shirk work 
and allow us to do all the road-breaking, while he follow- 
ed comfortably in our tracks, and by this strategic ma- 
noeuvre had incurred Mr. Leet's most implacable hatred. 
The latter, therefore, had waked the unfortunate man up 
before he had been asleep five hours, and had deluded 
him into the belief that the Aurora Borealis was the first 
flush of daylight. He had accordingly started off at mid- 
night and was laboriously breaking a road up the steep 
mountain side through three feet of soft snow, relying upon 
Mr. L.'s promise that we would be along before sunrise. 
At five o'clock, when I got up, the voices of the postilion's 
men could still be heard shouting to their exhausted dogs 
near the summit of the mountain. We all breakfasted as 
leisurely as possible, in order to give them plenty of time 
to break a road for us, and did not finally start until after 
lix o'clock. 

It was a beautifully clear, still morning when we crossed 
the mountain above the yourt, and wound around through 
bare open valleys, among high hills, toward the sea-coast 



408 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

The sun had risen over the eastern hill-tops, and the snov» 
glittered as if strewn with diamonds, while the distant 
peaks of the Viliga appeared — 

"Bathed in the tenderest purple of distance 
Tinted and shadowed by pencils of air " — 

as calm and bright in their snowy majesty as if the suspi- 
cion of a storm had never attached to their smooth white 
slopes and sharp pinnacles. The air, although intensely 
cold, was clear and bracing ; and as our dogs bounded at 
a gallop over the hard, broken road, the exhilarating 
motion caused the very blood in our veins 

" to dance" 

" Blithe as the sparkling wine of France." 

About noon we came out of the mountains upon the 
sea-beach and overtook the postilion, who had stopped to 
rest his tired dogs. Our own being fresh, we again took 
the lead, and drew rapidly near to the valley of the Viliga. 

I was just mentally congratulating myself upon our 
good fortune in having clear weather to pass this dreaded 
point, when my attention was suddenly attracted by a 
curious white cloud or mist, extending from the mouth of 
the Viliga ravine far out over the black open water of 
the Okhotsk Sea. Wondering what it could be, I pointed 
it out to our guide, and inquired if it were fog. His face 
clouded up with anxiety as he glanced at it, and replied 
laconically, " Viliga dooreet," or " the mountains are 
fooling." This oracular response did not enlighten me 
very much, and I demanded an explanation. I was then 
told, to my astonishment and dismay, that the curious 
white mist which I had taken to be fog was a dense driv- 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 409 

ing cloud of snow, hurled out of the mouth of the ravine 
by a storm, which had apparently just begun in the uppei 
gorges of the Stanavoi range. It would be impossible, 
our guide said, to cross the valley, and dangerous to at- 
tempt it until the wind should subside. I could not see 
either the impossibility or the danger, and as there was 
another "yourt " or shelter-house on the other side of the 
ravine, I determined to go on and make the attempt at least 
to cross. Where we were the weather was perfectly 
calm and still ; a candle would have burned in the open 
air without nickering, and I could not realize the tremen- 
dous force of the hurricane which, only a mile ahead, was 
vomiting snow out of the mouth of that ravine and. carry- 
ing it four miles to sea. Seeing that Leet and I were 
determined to cross the valley, our guide shrugged his 
shoulders expressively, as much as to say, " You will soon 
regret your haste," and we went on. 

As we gradually approached the white curtain of mist, 
we began to feel sharp intermittent puffs of wind and little 
whirlwinds of snow, which increased constantly in strength 
and frequency as we drew nearer and nearer to the mouth 
of the ravine. Our guide once more remonstrated with us 
upon the folly of going deliberately into such a storm as 
this evidently would be ; but Leet laughed him to scorn, 
declaring in broken Russian that he had seen storms in 
the Sierra Nevadas to which this was not a circumstance — 
" Col-shoi storms, you bet ! " But in five minutes more Mr. 
Leet himself was ready to admit that this storm on the 
Viliga would not compare unfavorably with anything of 

the kind which he had ever seen in California. 
x8 



4IO TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

As we rounded the end of a protecting bluff en the 
edge of the ravine, the gale burst upon us in all its fury, 
blinding and suffocating us with dense clouds of driving 
snow, which blotted out instantly the sun and the clear 
blue sky, and fairly darkened the whole earth. The wind 
roared as it sometimes does through the cordage of a 
ship at sea. There was something almost supernatural 
in the suddenness of the change from bright sunshine and 
calm still air to this howling, blinding tempest, and I began 
to feel doubtful myself as to the practicability of crossing 
the valley. Our guide turned with a despairing look to 
me, as if reproaching me with my obstinacy in coming 
into the storm against his advice, and then urged on with 
shouts and blows his cowering dogs. The sockets of the 
poor brutes' eyes were completely plastered up with snow, 
and out of many of them were oozing drops of blood ; 
but blind as they were they still struggled on, uttering at 
intervals short mournful cries, which alarmed me more 
than the roaring of the storm. In a moment we were at 
the bottom of the ravine ; and before we could check the 
impetdi of our descent we were out on the smooth glare 
ice of the " Propadschina," or " River of the Lost," and 
sweeping rapidly down toward the open water of the Ok- 
hotsk Sea, only a hundred yards below. All our efforts to 
stop our sledges were at first unavailing against the force 
of the wind, and I began to understand the nature of the 
danger to which our guide had alluded. Unless we could 
stop our sledges before we should reach the mouth of the 
river we must inevitably be blown off the ice into three or 
four fathoms of water. Precisely such a disaster had 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 411 

given the river its ominous name. Leet and the Cessack 
Paderin, who were alone upon their respective sledges, and 
who did not get so far from the shore in the first place, 
finally succeeded with the aid of their spiked sticks in 
getting back ; but the old guide and I were together upon 
one sledge, and our voluminous fur clothes caught so 
much wind that our spiked sticks would not stop or hold 
us, and our dogs could not keep their feet. Believing 
that the sledge must inevitably be blown into the sea if 
we both clung to it, I finally relinquished my hold and 
tried to stop myself by sitting down, and then by lying 
down flat upon my face on the ice ; but all was of no 
avail; my slippery furs took no hold of the smooth 
treacherous surface, and I drifted away even faster than 
before. I had already torn off my mittens, and as I slid 
at last over a rough place in the ice I succeeded in getting 
my finger-nails into the little corrugations of the surface 
and in stopping my perilous drift ; but I hardly dared 
breathe lest I should lose my hold. Seeing my situation, 
Leet slid to me a sharp iron-spiked " oerstel," which is 
used to check the speed of a sledge in descending hills, 
and by digging this into the ice at short intervals I crept 
back to shore only a short distance above the open water 
at the mouth of the river, into which my mittens had al- 
ready gone. Our guide was still sliding slowiy and at 
intervals down stream, but Paderin went to his assistance 
with another "oerstel," and together they Drought his 
sledge once more to land. I wou.d have been quite sat- 
isfied now to turn back and get out of the storm ; but our 
guide's blood was up, and cross the valley ne wouid if we 



412 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

lost all our sledges in the sea. He had warned us of the 
danger and we had insisted upon coming on ; we must 
now take the consequences. 

As it was evidently impossible to cross the river at this 
point, we struggled up its left bank in the teeth of the 
storm almost half a mile, until we reached a bend which 
put land between us and the open water. Here we made 
a second attempt, and were successful. Crossing a low 
ridge on the west side of the " Propadschina," we reached 
another small stream, known as the Viliga, at the foot of 
the Viliga Mountains. Along this there extended a nar 
row strip of dense timber, and in this timber, somewhere, 
stood the yourt of which we were in search. Our guide 
seemed to find the road by a sort of instinct, for the 
drifting clouds of snow hid even our leading dogs from 
sight, and all that we could see of the country was the 
ground on which we stood. About an hour before dark, 
tired and chilled to the bone, we drew up before a little 
log-hut in the woods, which our guide said was the Viliga 
yourt. The last travellers who had occupied it had left 
the chimney-hole open, and it was nearly filled with snow, 
but we cleared it out as well as we could, built a fire on 
the ground in the centre, and, regardless of the smoke, 
crouched around it to drink tea. We had seen nothing 
of the "postilion" since noon, and hardly thought it 
possible that he could reach the yourt ; but just as it be- 
gan to grow dark we heard the howling of his dogs in the 
woods, and in a few moments he made his appearance. 
Our party now numbered nine men — two Americans, three 
Russians, and four Koraks — and a wild-looking crowd it 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 413 

was, as it squatted around the fire in that low smoke- 
blackened hut, drinking tea and listening to the howling 
wind. As there was not room enough for all to sleep in- 
side the yourt, the Koraks camped out doors on the snow, 
and before morning were half buried in a drift. 

All night the wind roared a deep, hoarse bass through 
the forest which sheltered the yourt, and at daylight on the 
following morning there was no abatement of the storm. 
We knew that it might blow without intermission in that 
ravine for two weeks, and we had only four days' dog-food 
and provisions left. Something must be done. The Vil- 
iga Mountains which blocked up the road to Gamsk were 
cut by three gaps or passes, all of which opened into the 
valley, and in clear weather could be easily found and 
crossed. In such a storm, however, as the one which had 
overtaken us, a hundred passes would be of no avail, 
because the drifting snow hid everything from sight at a 
distance of thirty feet, and we were as likely to go directly 
up the side of a peak. * * * We were making very 
fair progress when we found ourselves suddenly confronted 
by an entirely unexpected and apparently insurmounta- 
ble obstacle. The beach, as far as we could see to the 
westward, was completely filled up from the water's edge 
to a height of seventy-five or a hundred feet by enormous 
drifts of snow, which had been gradually accumulating 
there throughout the winter, and which now masked the 
whole face of the precipice, and left no room for passage 
between it and the sea. These snow-drifts, by frequent al- 
ternations of warm and cold weather, had been rendered 
almost as hard and slippery as ice, and as they sloped up- 



414 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ward toward the tops of the cliffs at an angle of seventy 
five or eighty degrees, it was impossible to stand upon 
them without first cutting places for the feet with an axe 
Along ths face of this smooth, snowy escarpment, which 
rose directly out of two or three fathoms of water, lay cur 
only route to Gamsk. The prospect of getting over it 
without meeting with some disaster seemed very faint, for 
the slightest caving away of the snow would tumble us all 
into the open sea * but as there was no alternative, we 
fastened our dogs to cakes of ice, distributed our axes and 
hatchets, threw off our heavy fur coats, and began cutting 
out a road. 

We worked hard all day, and by six o'clock in the even- 
ing had cut a deep trench three feet in width along the 
face of the escarpment to a point about a mile and a 
quarter west of the mouth of the Viliga. Here we were 
again stopped, however, by a difficulty infinitely worse 
than any which we had surmounted. The beach, which 
had previous extended in one unbroken line along the 
foot of the cliffs, here suddenly disappeared, and the mass 
of snow over which we had been cutting a road came to 
an abrupt termination. Unsupported from beneath, the 
wnole escarpment had caved away into the sea, leav- 
ing a gap of open water about thirty-five feet in width, 
out of which rose the black perpendicular wall of the 
coast. There was no possibility of getting across without 
tne assistance of a pontoon bridge. Tired and disheart- 
ened, we were compelled to camp on the slope of the es- 
carpment for the night, with no prospect of being able to 
do anything in the morning except return w T ith all possible 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 415 

speed to the Viliga, and abandon entirely the idea of 
reaching Gamsk. 

A wilder, more dangerous location for a camp than that 
which we occupied could hardly be found in Siberia, and 
I watched with the greatest uneasiness the signs of the 
weather as it began to grow dark. The huge sloping 
snow-drift upon which we stood rose directly out of the 
water, and, as far as we knew, it might have no other 
foundation than a narrow strip of ice. If so, the faintest 
breeze from any direction except north would roll in 
waves high enough to undermine and break up the whole 
escarpment, and either precipitate us with an avalanche 
of snow into the open sea, or leave us clinging like bar- 
nacles to the bare face of the precipice, seventy-five feet 
above it. Neither alternative was pleasant to contem- 
plate, and I determined, if possible, to find a place of 
greater security. Leet, with his usual recklessness, dug 
himself out what he called a "bed-room" in the snow, 
about fifty feet above the water, and promised me " a good 
night's sleep" if I would accept his hospitality and share 
his cave ; but under the circumstances I thought best to 
decline. His "bed-room," bed, and bedding, might all 
tumble into the sea before morning, and his "good night's 
sleep" be indefinitely prolonged. Going back a short 
distance in the direction of the Viliga, I finally discovered 
a place where a small stream had once fallen over the 
summit of the cliff, and had worn out a steep narrow 
channel in its face. In the rocky, uneven bed of this little 
ravine the natives and I stretched ourselves out for the 
night — our bodies inclined at an angle of forty-five degree? 
— our heads, of course, up-hill. 



416 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

If the reader can imagine himself camping out cm 
the steep sloping roof of a great cathedral, with a pre 
cipice a hundred feet high over his head and three or foui 
fathoms of open water at his feet, he will be able, perhaps, 
to form some idea of the way in which we spent that dis- 
mal night. 

With the first streak of dawn we were up. While we 
were gloomily making preparations to return to the Vi- 
liga, one of the Koraks who had gone to take a last look 
at the gap of open water came hurriedly running back, 
shouting joyfully, " Mozhno perryekat, mozhno perrye- 
kat ! " — It is possible to cross. The tide which had risen 
during the night had brought in two or three large cakes 
of broken ice, and had jammed them into the gap in such 
a manner as to make a rude bridge. Fearing, however, 
that it would not support a very heavy weight, we un- 
loaded all our sledges, carried the loads, sledges, and dogs 
across separately, loaded up again on the other side, and 
went on. The worst of our difficulties was past. We still 
had some road-cutting to do through occasional snow- 
drifts ; but as we went farther and farther to the westward 
the beach, as the Koraks had predicted, became wider 
and higher, the ice disappeared, and by night we were 
thirty versts nearer to our destination. The sea on one 
side, and the cliffs on the other, still hemmed us in ; but 
on the following day we succeeded in making our escape 
through the valley of the Kananaga River. 

The twelfth day of our journey found us on a great 
steppe called the Malcachan, only thirty miles from 
Gamsk ; and although our dog- food and provisions wer* 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 41? 

both exhausted, we hoped to reach the settlement late in 
the night. Darkness came on, however, with another 
blinding snow-storm, in which we again lost our way ; and 
fearing that we would drive over the edges of the precipices 
into the sea, by which the steppe was bounded on the east, 
we were finally compelled to stop. We could find no 
wood for a fire ; but even had we succeeded in making a 
fire, it would have been instantly smothered by the clouds 
of snow which the furious wind drove across the plain. 
Spreading down our canvas tent upon the ground, and 
capsizing a heavy dog-sledge upon one edge of it to hold 
it fast, we crawled under it to get away from the suffocat- 
ing snow. Lying there upon our faces, with the canvas 
flapping furiously against our backs, we scraped our bread- 
bag for the last few frozen crumbs which remained, and ate 
a few scraps of raw meat which Mr. Leet found on one of 
the sledges. In the course of fifteen or twenty minutes 
we noticed that the flappings of the canvas were getting 
shorter arJ shorter, and that it seemed to be tightening 
across our bodies, and upon making an effort to get out 
we found that we were fastened down. The snow had 
drifted in such masses upon the edges of the tent and had 
packed there with such solidity that it could not be mov- 
ed, and after trying once or twice to break out we con- 
cluded to lie still and make the best of our situation. As 
long as the snow did not bury us entirely, we were better 
off under the tent than anywhere else, because we were 
protected from the wind. In half an hour the drift had 
increased to such an extent that we could no longer turn 

over, and our supply of air was almost entirely cut of£ 
18* 



41% TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

We must either get out or be suffocated. I had drawn mi 
sheath-knife fifteen minutes before in expectation of such a 
crisis, and as it was already becoming difficult to breathe, 
I cut a long slit in the canvas above my head and we 
crawled out. In an instant eyes and nostrils were complete- 
ly plastered up with snow, and we gasped for breath as if 
the stream of a fire-engine had been turned suddenly in our 
faces. Drawing our heads and arms into the bodies of 
our fur coats, we squatted down upon the snow to wait 
for daylight. In a moment I heard Mr. Leet shouting 
down into the neck -hole of my fur coat, " What would our 
mothers say if they could see us now ? " I wanted to ask 
him how this would compare with a gale in his boasted 
Sierra Nevadas, but he was gone before I could get my 
head out, and I heard nothing more from him that night. 
He went away somewhere in the darkness and squatted 
down alone upon the snow, to suffer cold and hunger and 
anxiety until morning. For more than ten hours we sat in 
this way on that desolate storm-swept plain, without fire, 
food, or sleep, becoming more and more chilled and ex- 
hausted, until it seemed as if day-light would never come. 
Morning dawned at last through gray drifting clouds of 
snow, and getting up with stiffened limbs, we made feeble 
attempts to dig out our buried sledges. But for the un- 
wearied efforts of Mr. Leet we should hardly have suc- 
ceeded, as my hands and arms were so benumbed with 
cold that I could not hold an axe or a shovel, and our 
drivers, frightened and discouraged, seemed unable to do 
anything. By Mr. Leet's individual exertions the sledges 
were dug out and we started. His brief spasm of <jrergj 



TENT IJFE IN SIBERIA. 



419 



was the last effort of a strong will to uphold a sinking and 
exhausted body, and in half an hour he requested to be 
tied on his sledge. We lashed him on from head to foot 
with seal-skin thongs, covered him up with bear-skins, and 
drove on. In about an hour his driver, Padarin, came 
back to me with a frightened look in his face, and said 
that Mr. Leet was dead ; that he had shaken him and 
called him several times, but could get no reply. Alarmed 
and shocked, I sprang from my sledge and ran up to the place 
where he lay, shouted to him, shook him by the shoulder, 
and tried to uncover his head, which he had drawn down 
into the body of his fur coat. In a moment, to my great 
relief, I heard his voice, saying that he was all right and 
could hold out, if necessary, until night ; that he had not 
answered Padarin because it was too much trouble, but 
that I need not be alarmed about his safety ; and then I 
thought he added something about " worse storms in the 
Sierra Nevadas," which convinced me that he was far from 
being used up yet. As long as he could insist upon the 
superiority of Californian storms, there was certainly hope. 
Early in the afternoon we reached the Gamsk River, 
and, after wandering about for an hour or two in the tim- 
ber, came upon one of Lieut. Arnold's Yakoot working- 
parties and were conducted to their camp, only a few 
miles from the settlement. Here we obtained some rye 
bread and hot tea, warmed our benumbed limbs, and par- 
tially cleared the snow out of our clothing. When I saw 
Mr. Leet undressed I wondered that he had not died. 
While squatting out on the ground during the storm of the 
previous night, snow in great quantities had blown in at 



420 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

his neck, had partially melted with the warmth of his body, 
and had then frozen again in a mass of ice along his whole 
spine, and in that condition he had lived to be driven 
twenty versts. Nothing but a strong will and the most in- 
tense vitality enabled him to hold out during these last six 
dismal hours. When we had warmed, rested, and dried 
ourselves at the camp fire of the Yakoots, we resumed 
our journey, and late in the afternoon we drove into the 
settlement of Gamsk, after thirteen days of as hard expe- 
rience as usually falls to the lot of Siberian travellers. 
Mr. Leet so soon recovered his strength and spirits that 
three days afterwards he started for Okhotsk, where the 
Major wished him to take charge of a gang of Yakoot 
laborers. The last words which I remember to have ever 
heard him speak were those which he shouted to me in 
the storm and darkness of that gloomy night on the Mal- 
cachan steppe : "What would our mothers say if they 
could see us now?" The poor fellow was afterwards 
driven insane by excitements and hardships such as these 
which I have described, and probably to some extent by 
this very expedition, and finally corirmitted suicide by 
shooting himself at one of the lonely Siberian settlements 
on the coast of the Okhotsk Sea. 

I have described somewhat in detail this trip to Gamsk 
because it illustrates the darkest side of Siberian life and 
travel. It is not often that one meets with such an expe- 
rience, or suffers so many hardships in any one j purney ; 
but in a country so wild and sparsely populated as Siberia, 
winter travel is necessarily attended with more or lest 
suffering and privation. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

RETURN TO GEEZHEGA — ARRIVAL OF THE " ONWARD "— 
ORDERS TO "CLOSE UP " — BEATEN BY THE ATLANTIC 

CABLE SUMMARY — START FOR ST. PETERSBURG A 

TRIP OF MORE THAN 5,000 MILES. 

The trip to Gamsk described in the previous chapter 
was the last journey which I ever made in Northeastern 
Siberia. On the 18th of March Major Abasa returned to 
Yakootsk, to complete the organization and equipment 
of our Yakoot laborers, and I to Geezhega to await once 
more the arrival of vessels from America. From that 
time until the opening of navigation little was done in 
any part of the Siberian Division. Gregorie Zinovief, the 
Cossack who had been sent to Petropavlovski, returned 
in March with the remainder of the officers who had been 
left at that place by the Onward, and I sent them on, 
as the Major had directed, to Gamsk. Sandford and 
party finished cutting poles on the Tilghai, and I for- 
warded them to Penzhina; but the time for which his 
men had agreed to serve the Company expired, and they 
refused to renew their contracts, leaving me with only 
five men to carry on the work. 

Late in May the ice in the Gulf of Geezhega began 
to disappear, and on the first of June we boarded a whal- 



422 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

ing vessel off Matooga Island. It was the barque Sea 
Breeze, from New Bedford, Mass., with American news 
to the first of March. The Atlantic cable had proved to 
be an entire success, and from the San Francisco Bul- 
letin we learned that in consequence of this success 
" all work on the Russian American Telegraph line had 
been stopped and the enterprise abandoned." 

On the 15th of July the Company's barque Onward 
arrived from San Francisco, bringing orders to close up 
the business, discharge our native laborers, gather up 
our men, and return to America. The Atlantic cable was 
a complete success, and the Western Union Telegraph 
Company, after sinking nearly $3,000,000, had decided 
to abandon the project of an overland line to Russia. 
It seemed hard to give up at once the object to which 
we had devoted three years of our lives, and for whose 
attainment we had suffered all possible hardships of cold, 
exile, and starvation ; but we had no alternative, and began 
at once to make preparations for our final departure. 

The situation of affairs at the time the work was 
abandoned was briefly as follows. We had explored and 
located the whole route of the line, from the Amoor River 
to Behring's Straits. We had prepared altogether about 
15,000 telegraph poles, built between forty and fifty sta- 
tion-houses and magazines, cut nearly fifty miles of road 
through the forests in the vicinity of Gamsk and Okhotsk, 
and accomplished a great deal of preparatory work along 
the whole extent of the line. Our resources for another 
season would have been ample. Besides seventy-five 
Americans, we had a force of a hundred and fifty native* 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 423 

already at work between Gamsk and Okhotsk, and six 
hundred more were on their way from Yakootsk : oirr 
facilities for transportation another year would have been 
almost unlimited. We had a small steamer on the Anadyr 
River, and had ordered another for the Penzhina ; we 
owned a hundred and fifty dogs and several hundred 
reindeer at Gamsk, Okhotsk, and Geezhega, and had pur- 
chased three hundred Siberian horses at Yakootsk, with 
an immense amount of material for their equipment and 
subsistence. By the first of September we would have 
been able to take the field with a force of nearly a thou- 
sand men. The success of the Atlantic cable, however, 
rendered all our preparations unavailing. We might 
build the line, but there was no Company in the world 
which would undertake to sustain and work it a single 
year in competition with the cable. 

In itself, the route of the Russo-American Telegraph 
Company from Behring's Straits to the Amoor River pre- 
sented no insurmountable obstacles to the construction 
of a line. The work would have been difficult, but it 
could have been accomplished, and I believe that this is a 
much more practical route for a line to China than the 
one recently proposed by Mr. Collins, via the Aleutian 
Islands, Kamtchatka, and Japan. Labor in Siberia is very 
cheap, and almost any desired number of men can be en- 
gaged at Yakootsk for about forty dollars a year and sub- 
sistence. Horses can also be purchased at Yakootsk and 
Kolyma to the number of five or six hundred, at prices 
varying from fifteen to twenty-five dollars. Nothing 
need be brought from America except wire, insulators, 



424 TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 

and tools, and a small quantity of provisions for a limited 
number of American foremen. If there were any call for 
it, I believe that a line could be successfully built from 
Behring's Straits to the Amoor River in two years, at an 
expense not exceeding $250,000. 

The remainder of the summer of 1867, after the arrival 
of the Onward, was almost entirely consumed in picking 
up our scattered parties along the coast of the Okhotsk 
Sea, selling off our stores to Russian merchants, and 
making preparations for departure. A separate vessel 
had been sent to the mouth of the Anadyr after Bush and 
his comrades, so that we did not have another opportunity 
of seeing them. On the 6th of August Major Abasa left 
for St. Petersburg, overland, and early in October the 
Onward sailed for San Francisco, carrying back all 
but four of the employes of the unfortunate Russo- 
American Telegraph Expedition. Leet, Price, Mahood, 
and I — the "rear-guard of the grand army" — remained 
at Okhotsk, with the intention of going home in winter 
across Asia and Europe, around the world. 

It was a lonely time in that dreary settlement after all 
our comrades had gone ; but winter soon set in, and on 
the 24th of October Price and I started on dog-sledges 
for a journey of more than 5,000 miles to St. Petersburg. 
I will not add another to the number of descriptions which 
have already been written of overland trips from the 
Pacific Ocean to Russia. 

Suffice it to say, that, taking government post-horsea 
at Yakootsk, and travelling night and day, we passed 
Irkootsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, on Decembei 



TENT LIFE IN SIBERIA. 425 

6th. On the 30th we crossed the Russian frontier, and 
on January 3d, after ten weeks of incessant travel, we 
caught sight of the glittering domes of Moscow, and 
dosed forever the book of our Siberian Experience. 



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and desirable addition to any library .' ; ' —Congregationalist. 

" Miss Bird's book is fascinating throughout." — The American, Philadelphia. 

" She draws out the story of the homely, everyday life in Japan as it has never 
before been presented." — The Republican, Springfield, Mass. 

" Japan is truly a wonderful country * * * who follows Miss Bird in its 
unbeaten tracks will be not only interested, but delighted and almost enchanted. 
* * * she has told us more about the country, its history, its literature, its business, 
and the habits, thoughts, and customs of the people, than we might learn from forty 
ordinary books on Japan * * * a remarkably good book * * * it is brimful 
of information, much of which has never come under our eye before."— Boston Post. 

" We do not hesitate to say that of all the books of Japanese travels which we 
have seen— and we have seen a score or two— this is, without question, the best." 
— Louisville Courier-jfournal. 

" Among the works of travellers, relating to this country, we are inclined to 
rank l Unbeaten Tracks in Japan ' as perhaps the best. * * * In all respects it is 
a sensible, useful work."— Troy Daily Times. 

" A minute account of the interior of Japan. * * * on nearly every page 
something new or novel is set forth. * * * This record of life in the interior of 
Japan is the freshest and most satisfactory of any which has yet been given to the 
public." — San Francisco Evening Bulletin. 



PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, 

BY THE AUTHOR OF "UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN." 

A LADY'S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. By Isa- 
bella Bird, author of " Unbeaten Tracks in Japan," etc. Third 
edition, octavo, illustrated, . . . . . . $i 75 

" Of the bold dragoons„who have recently figured in military life, bewitching 
the world with feats of noble horsemanship, the fair Amazon who rides like a Centaur 
over the roughest passes of the Rocky mountains will certainly bear away the palm." 
— New York Tribune. 

" Told with a gracefulness and an enthusiasm that render her work more enter- 
taining and thrilling than any fictitious story of adventure." — New England Fariner. 

" Throughout the whole book there is a beauty and simplicity of style, brimful 
of good cheer, which renders the book as vivacious and chatty as a romance."— Pitts- 
burgh Telegram. 

" We have not met. so charming a book of travel in many a day." — New York 
Evening Mail. 

" It is really a delightful and enjoyable book." — New York Express. 

" She has made of her letters, in a word, an uncommonly worthy book of 
travel." — New York Evening Post. 

" The letters that describe ail she saw very vividly are collected to make this 
volume, which is altogether the most entertaining and the most full of pleasant de- 
scription that has appeared having the Rocky Mountain region as its subject."— 
Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. 

" A most interesting book of travels." — Boston Daily Evening Traveller. 

11 While it is thrilling and romantic in some places, it is equally entertaining 
and historical in other chapters." — Rochester Evening Express. 

u Miss Bird is an ideal writer. She can see, and she can use the words that 
place what she sees before the reader. She has regard to the essentials of a scene or 
episode, and describes these with a simplicity that is as effective as it is artless. 
Humor is here, of a quality precisely suited to a traveller ; never obtrusive, but never 
deficient when the need comes, oiling the wheels of action just in time to counteract 
friction. Better still, perhaps, she possesses individuality, inasmuch that although she 
vouchsafes us no self-drawn portrait, nor any approach to one, we sensibly derive an 
idea of her appearance and traits from the impress which these make upon the circum- 
stances of her position. * * * 

u For, spontaneous and unadorned as is her narrative, it is more interesting than 
most of the novels which it has been our lot to encounter, and, in fact, comprises char- 
acter, situations, and dramatic effect enough to make ninty-nine novels out of a hun- 
dred look pallid and flat in comparison. * * * 

" Her whole experience is a singular combination of the natural and the dra- 
matic, as well as a most encouraging record of feminine confidence and masculine 
chivalrousness." — The Spectator. 

u A fascinating book of travel." — Cincinnati Commercial. 

" Her descriptions are graphic, often charming, and always entertaining."— 
New York Herald. 

" This volume has proved an agreeable surprise. Not having any acquain- 
tance with the author's previous works, we took up this with no prepossessions in its 
favor, but found ourselves interested from the start, and read to the end with ever-in- 
creasing pleasure." — Worcester Spy. 



PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. 



A NEW VOLUME BY "JOHN LATOUCHE." 

PORTUGAL, OLD AND NEW. By Oswald Crawfurd, British 
Consul at Oporto. Octavo, with maps and illustrations, cloth 
extra, . . . . . . . . . -$3 5° 

Mr. Crawfurd, who is better known in literature under his nom de filuriie of 
John Latouche, has resided for many years in Portugal and has had exceptional op- 
portunities for becoming thoroughly acquainted with the country and its people. 

"The whole book, indeed, is excellent, giving the reader not information 
only, but appreciation of Portugal, its climate, its people and its ways. It is not a 
book of travel, but a book of residences, if we may say so." — New York Evening Post. 

" Mr. Crawfurd's admirable book is most opportune, and his long residence in 
the country, his intimate and critical knowledge of the language, history, poetry, and 
the inner life of trie people, render him an authority as safe to follow as he is pleas- 
ant. * * * The book is excellent in every way." — Atheneeum. 

" A more agreeable account of Portugal and the Portuguese could scarcely 
have been written, and it will surprise us if the book does not live as one of the best 
descriptions we possess of a toreign nation." — St. James Gazette. 

A FORBIDDEN LAND ; OR, VOYAGES TO THE COREA. 

With full description of the manners, customs, history, etc., of a com- 
munity of some 16,000,000 people hitherto almost entirely unknown. 
By Ernst Oppert. Octavo, with maps and illustrations, $3 00 

u The author combines a story of his personal adventures, with a most intel- 
ligible description of the country, its inhabitants, their customs, and of everything 
which would help his readers to form a correct idea of what he himself saw and 
learned." — The Churchman. 

" Sure to be eagerly and widely read * * * contains almost the only au- 
thentic description of Corea and its people with which the public are familiar." — San 
Francisco Bui let hi. 

" Full of data of the highest value on the geography and history of Corea, its 
commercial value and products." — New York Times. • 

" Mr. Oppert has made a book of rare interest." — New York Evening Post. 

" His personal narrative is one of great interest * * * hs is rewarded for 
his enterprise in being able to communicate so much novel and valuable information 
in regard to a country which has so long remained beyond the scope of geographical 
research." — New York Tribune. 

ROMAN DAYS. By Viktor Rydberg. Translated by Alfred 
Corning Clark, with Memoir of the author by H. A. W. Lindehn. 
Octavo, cloth. Illustrated $2 00 

The volume embodies the results of careful hirtorical stuiies, and gives some 
legendary matters not heretotoie brought foiwarJ. Ths art criticisms are the work 
of a poet an 1 scholar ; the brief historical an J t >pogranhigal sketches, those of a clear- 
headed philosopher and eager traveller, a quick observer, a man of general and thoi- 
ough culture. The book is a picturesque mosaic of t <e many brilliant, sober, gay, 
comic, dramatic, tragic, poetic, vulgar elements that make up the past history of that 
wonderful city and the physiognomy it bears to-day. 

" We welcome this work from the hardy North for its broad scholarship, its 
freshness and ripeness. The articles betray an artistic discrimination rare in. one not 
a sculptor by profession and experienced and enthusiastic in that art. Rydberg pos« 
sesses the pure plastic spirit."— N. Y. Herald. 



PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. 

A NEW BOOK BY THE AUTHOR OF " CONSTANTINOPLE." 

HOLLAND AND ITS PEOPLE. By Edmundo de Amicis, author 
of " Constantinople," " Studies of Paris," " Morocco," " Spain," etc. 
Octavo. With 18 full-page plates $2 00 

In this volume of which editions are appearing at' once in Florence, Paris, 
London and New York, the brilliant author of " Paris" and u Constantinople" has 
turned his steps to a land abounding in picturesque effects and whose history is full of 
dramatic interest, and his vivid descriptions of the Hollanders and their homes show 
that his pen has lost none of its eloquence or delicac}^ of touch. His analysis of the 
traits and characteristics of this sturdy race, which has played so important a part in 
the history of Europe, is most interesting and valuable. 

" In descriptive passages, Signor Amicis is at home. A wealth of imagery 
flows from his pen and lightens the pages into prose poems. He has a quiet humor of 
the Latin type, a disposition to be amused ; but he is quick to sympathize with the 
emotions of his Dutch friends, and if he smiles at their stolidity, admires the rugged 
qualities and native genius which have produced a William of Orange, a John De Witt, 
a Barneveld, and a Rembrandt." — Boston Traveller. 

" Edmundo de Amicis has transformed the land of dykes into a land of beauty, 
of wonder, and of enchantment. He has written, in a word, a book in every sense 
ch arming. ' ' — Ch icago 'Times. 

44 It is only simple justice to say that a more delightful volume of travels 
hardly may be found." — Philadelphia Times. 

44 His sparkling, graphic book is a thoroughly charming one, to which we give 
the most unaffected praise." — Louisville Courier-Journal. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 

CONSTANTINOPLE. 8vo, cloth, . . . . . . £i 50 

De Amicis is one of the strongest and most brilliant of the present generation 
of Italian writers, and this latest work from his pen, as well from the picturesqueness 
of its descriptions as for its skilful analysis of the traits and characteristics of th» med- 
ley of races represented in the Turkish capital, possesses an exceptional interest and 
value. 

44 The most picturesque and entertaining volume contained in the recent litera- 
ture on the Eastern question." — Boston Journal. 

44 A remarkable work * * * the author is a poet, an artist, a wonder- 
worker in words * * * his descriptions are given with rare skill." — N. Y. Evening 
Post. 

STUDIES OF PARIS. By Edmundo de Amicis, author of "Con- 
stantinople," " Morocco," "Holland," etc. i2mo, cloth extra, $1 25 

A series of wonderfully vivid and dramatic pictures of the great world's me- 
tropolis, by a writer whose previous books have gained a reputation for exceptional 
clearness of perception and facility in description. There is hardly a writer who can 
rival him in his power of reproducing for his readers the very atmosphere of the place 
he describes. These u Studies" include original and characteristic papers on the two 
authors whom he considers especially representative of the Paris of to-day — Hugo and 
Zola. 

41 Poet in prose, painter in phrases, subtle musician in the harmonies of lan- 
guage, de Amicis has comprehended the manifold amazement, the potent charm of 
Paris as no writer before him has done." — Portland Press. 

44 A marvel of intense, rapid, graphic and poetic description, by one of the most 
brilliant of modern Italian writers. The chapters on Hugo and Zola show the same 
power of description and analysis in dealing with mind and character."— Christian 
Register. 






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